Workshop in Hamburg produces fruitful discussions on tackling the issues of the future

Speech of State Secretary Prof. Meyer-Krahmer

An international workshop entitled "From Foresight to Innovation - Bridging the Gap" took place in Hamburg on 9 and 10 October 2008. How will we live in future? Which technologies will be important? And how must research policy adapt to meet the challenges of the future? All these questions will be expounded within the framework of the BMBF's Foresight Process.

State Secretary Professor Frieder Meyer-Krahmer opened the international workshop on 9 October at the "Patriotic Society of 1765" in Hamburg and explained that the Foresight Process was initially a search process.

Professor Meyer-Krahmer continued: "The process helps us to gain an impression of how our world of tomorrow can look - and what consequences this already has for research and innovation funding today". He added that the BMBF hopes to gain new insights in order to be able to develop a long-term strategic research policy. Professor Meyer-Krahmer: "We want to know today what will be important tomorrow."

Further Speeches at the first day of the conference

The workshop, which was attended by around 85 German and international experts in the field of innovation, set out to learn from working examples how one can shorten the time between finding ideas and implementing them within the framework of research funding.
Luke Georghiou (Institute for Innovation Research, Manchester University) gave a plenary speech on the implementation of foresight results in Great Britain and Alfred Nordmann (TU Darmstadt) spoke on converging technologies. The main focus of the event, however, was on parallel workshops to discuss the following aspects of research and innovation policy:

• Organization of scientific communities
• Establishment of research alliances 
• Research programmes and initiatives
• Instruments of innovation policy 
• Generation of ideas

End of the firts conference day

The first day of the workshop ended with a joint dinner. Bernd Reinhard, State Councillor for Science and Research of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, emphasized the great importance of innovation funding in a short speech.

Discussion of results and round table discussion

The results of the previous day's five parallel workshops were presented to the plenary for discussion on the second day of the meeting.

The workshop ended with a round table discussion on the role of strategic partnerships in implementing new technological trends and topics. Dr. Lothar Behlau of the Fraunhofer Society, Dr. Laurent Buisson from the French Ministry for Youth, Education and Research, Richard B. Dasher, Ph.D. of Stanford University, Dr. Wolfgang Gerteis of SAP Research, Christophe Guichard of the EU Commission and Kees van Mourik of the ARTEMISIA Association discussed how important players can be brought together at an early stage and motivated to engage in long-term cooperation, quoting their own experiences and cases in point.