Research and Innovation Summit for the first time at HANNOVER MESSE

What is the best way for Germany and Europe to ensure prosperity, create value and drive social progress using research and innovation? What are the necessary competencies and catalysts – i.e. critical decision points – and what is the required cooperation between industry and science? How can politics regulate and promote innovation? The example of AI demonstrates how important the answers to these questions are, because Europe has already largely lost ground on the leading nations in this area. So where does Europe stand in international AI competition? What impact will AI applications have on research, production and the labor market, and how can we impart the necessary skills and drive cross-industry collaboration to create an AI-based economy? Prominent guests from business, science, politics and civil society will discuss these and other questions at the 2024 Research and Innovation Summit.

The Research and Innovation Summit is organized by the Stifterverband (Association for the Promotion of German Science), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI). It is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Next year’s Summit will be held in cooperation with HANNOVER MESSE. The unique coupling of the world’s leading trade fair for industry with Germany’s leading forum for networking on research and innovation policy will link industry, politics and science even more closely together and send a widely perceptible signal for Germany’s start into a new era and the rapid advancement of its standing as a hub of innovation. Leading companies from the fields of mechanical engineering, the electrical engineering and digital industries as well as the energy sector will showcase their innovative products and solutions based on the use of artificial intelligence to promote greater efficiency and product quality at the world’s leading platform for all technologies related to industrial transformation.

Since 2015, influential personalities from business, science, civil society and politics have gathered annually at the Research Summit to find the answers to key issues and challenges in research and innovations policy. In 2024, the Research Summit will be renamed the Research and Innovation Summit due to an expanded range of topics, but will continue to be organized by the Stifterverband, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) and the Volkswagen Foundation. As an interdisciplinary forum based in Berlin, it promotes dialog and networking and has established itself as a platform for high-level networking on innovations and research policy. Its goal is to strengthen Germany as a venue for innovations-based value creation and scientific breakthroughs. www.forschungsgipfel.de

The Stifterverband is a community of around 3,500 committed people, companies and organizations from business, science and civil society. It is dedicated to rethinking and reshaping education and science in order to sustainably strengthen society’s innovative power. As a central initiator, it analyzes current challenges, promotes model projects and facilitates their dissemination in diverse networks. It networks businesses, science and civil society, jointly developing ideas and initiating political reforms. In its work, it concentrates on two major fields of action: Education and Competencies on the one hand, and Collaborative Research and Innovation on the other. www.stifterverband.org

As the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina provides independent science-based policy advice on socially relevant issues. To this end, the Academy draws up interdisciplinary statements based on scientific findings. These publications outline options for action, leaving the decisions up to democratically legitimized policymakers. Leopoldina represents German science in international bodies, including science-based advice to the annual G7 and G20 summits. It has around 1,700 members from more than 30 countries and brings together expertise from virtually all fields of research. www.leopoldina.org

The Berlin-based Expert Commission on Research and Innovation (EFI) has been providing scientific policy advice to the German government since 2008 and submits an expert report to it annually. The EFI’s central task is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the German innovation system in an international context and, on this basis, to develop recommendations for action in research and innovations policy. www.e-fi.de

The Volkswagen Foundation is Germany's largest private, non-profit science funding organization. The foundation’s funding programs are aimed at the natural sciences, life sciences and engineering as well as the humanities and social sciences in Germany and abroad. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote science and technology in research and teaching. www.volkswagenstiftung.de