Branch labs

CeRRI develops new approaches and methods to identify promising research trajectories and to focus research agendas and projects on social requirements in an early stage of R&D processes.

Four competence teams harness the potential of diversity to foster innovation: Need-oriented research planning; process design and transformative methods; diversity in organizations; and research on knowledge transfer. CeRRI aims at informing and guiding the development of technologies, products, services, models, and strategies, reorienting them toward the needs of society.

Intensive collaboration with other research institutions of outstanding merit is a key prerequisite for ensuring ongoing excellence in an institution's performance.

Fraunhofer IAO was instrumental in establishing the Fraunhofer Innovation Engineering Center IEC in Bolzano, South Tyrol, where we are working together in international, multidisciplinary teams with the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the Trade Association of South Tyrol on projects for small and medium-sized companies in the region.

At the Pionier:HUB in Munich, innovative and future-oriented projects are scientifically accompanied and supported in their conceptual implementation. With the help of impact and acceptance analyses, scaling and replication processes in urban areas can be optimized, among other things. The goal is to advance climate-neutral neighborhood and urban development in the long term through the scientific findings generated.

We created the KEIM Fraunhofer application center together with Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences in order to strengthen the links between the research and academic communities.

At KEIM (the competence center for energy and information technology mobility interfaces), we work with scientists and students from the university to research and develop both hard- and software for intelligent transport systems.

Supported by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, a Research and Innovation Center for Cognitive Service Systems (KODIS) has been established in Heilbronn in order to place research questions on artificial intelligence directly in relation to customer-oriented service offerings.

Launched in early 2015, the LOGWERT competence center combines Fraunhofer IAO’s expertise in mobility and urban systems engineering with Heilbronn University’s specialist knowledge of logistics.

It provides businesses and communities in the Heilbronn-Franken area with an application-oriented research structure that focuses on the interconnectivity between urban logistics and regional added value.

Fraunhofer IAO has been running a network office in Cluj to provide on-site support since July 1, 2014. Many German companies have manufacturing operations in Transylvania. One of the many reasons for this is the low cost of manufacturing in Romania, where they can also work closely together with local suppliers and business partners. To support this collaboration, Fraunhofer IAO and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca launched the Global Digital Production innovation network in 2013. The goal is to take the latest developments in industrial production – which are being developed in Germany under the banner of industry 4.0 – and adapt them to local conditions to make them practicable for Transylvania.

At the core of the collaboration with Reutlingen University’s EBS Business School is the link between education and research in the area of technology and innovation management.

A key part of this collaboration are lectures in which students learn about scientific or industrial projects. The idea is that by engaging in project work related to research and industry, students will acquire professional skills. This is intended to provide them with a thorough experience of the system of product creation, production and logistics.