Expert commission for research and innovation

The Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) is a six-member council of experts and provides scientific policy advice to the Federal Government on the subjects of education, research and innovation. The institution was established in 2006 by resolution of the federal government on August 26, 2006. The EFI office is located in Berlin. The EFI submits a report on research, innovation and technological performance in Germany to the federal government at the beginning of each year. It draws on our own research results as well as the results of external scientific institutions that were developed on behalf of the EFI. The first report was presented to the federal government on February 27, 2008.

Tasks and way of working

The expert commission has the following tasks:

Comparative presentation and analysis of structures, performance and perspectives of the German research and innovation system,
Assessment of key issues of the German research and innovation system,
Development of possible courses of action and recommendations for further development of the German research and innovation system.

The expert commission bundles the interdisciplinary discourse on innovation research in economics and social sciences, educational economics, engineering and natural sciences as well as technology foresight . With this approach, all technical, organizational, commercial and social factors that are important for the innovation process are taken into account. In addition, the Commission annually examines selected key topics that are of outstanding importance for the economy and society. In its annual report, the EFI summarizes the results in an easily understandable language and formulates recommendations for overcoming existing deficits in the innovation process. In this context, the EFI is systematically developing existing indicator systems for the analysis and description of innovation processes and, on this basis, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the German innovation system.

The EFI does not create “composite” innovation indices. The reason for this is that the use of composite indicators published in the form of rankings can be misleading. Finally, rankings can vary considerably based on an interest-led selection of indicators. Without an interpretive discussion of the underlying complex facts, there is plenty of room for manipulation through selection, weighting and aggregation. The annual reports as well as the studies on the German innovation system prepared on their behalf are available on the internet via the official homepage.

Annual report

The annual report is divided into three content chapters. Chapter A provides an overview of the current developments and challenges for the German innovation system. Chapter B contains the studies and recommendations for action on several key topics selected by the EFI. Chapter C includes the graphical representation and analysis of key innovation indicators. These include indicators such as “education and qualifications”, “research and development”, “innovation behavior in the economy”, “financing research and innovation”, “business start-ups”, “patents” and “production, value creation and employment”.

Members

Expert commission in 2020 (as of May 2020)

Irene Bertschek , Head of the Digital Economy Research Department at ZEW Mannheim and Professor at the University of Giessen
Holger Bonin, Research Director at the Institute for the Future of Work ( IZA ) Bonn and Professor of Economics at the University of Kassel
Uwe Cantner (Chairman), Professor of Economics / Microeconomics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Carolin Häussler, holder of the chair for organization, technology management and entrepreneurship at the University of Passau
Katharina Hölzle (deputy chairwoman), head of the IT Entrepreneurship research group at the Hasso Plattner Institute ( HPI ), Faculty for Digital Engineering at the University of Potsdam
Till Requate , Professor for Innovation, Competition Policy and New Institutional Economics at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel

former members

Ann-Kristin Achleitner , Scientific Co-Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS), holder of the KfW Endowed Chair for Entrepreneurial Finance, Technical University of Munich
Jutta Allmendinger , President of the Berlin Science Center for Social Research; Professor of Sociology at the Humboldt University Berlin
Uschi Backes-Gellner, professor of business administration at the University of Zurich
Christoph Böhringer, Professor of Economic Policy at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg
Dominique Foray, Professor of Innovation Management at the University of Lausanne
Alexander Gerybadze, Head of the International Management and Innovation Research Center and Professor of Business Administration at the University of Hohenheim
Hariolf Grupp (†), former Managing Director of the Institute for Economic Policy and Economic Research (IWW) at the University of Karlsruhe, Chair for System Dynamics and Innovation, Professor at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Dietmar Harhoff , Professor of Business Administration at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, since 2013 Director at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich
Patrick Llerena, Professor of Economics at the University of Strasbourg / France
Joachim Luther , former head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and Chief Executive Officer of the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore
Ingrid Ott, Professor of Economic Policy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Monika Schnitzer , head of the seminar for comparative economic research at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich
Luc Soete, Director of the Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Center on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), Professor of International Economic Relations at Maastricht University

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ The Expert Commission. Retrieved January 8, 2019 .
^ The members of the expert commission. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .

[1] The Expert Commission. Retrieved January 8, 2019 .

[2] The members of the expert commission. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .