Prof. Edler is not new to the Fraunhofer ISI: the political scientist, who gained a doctorate with distinction, worked at the institute as a research assistant in 1999, conducting analyses of research and innovation policy. Thanks to his excellent work, he was first made deputy head of the Innovation Systems and Policy department in 2004 and, two years later, became its head, before moving to the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research in 2007. From 2011 onward, he was executive director of this internationally renowned research institute. Prof. Edler advices numerous governments and committees on innovation policy. He has been president of the European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation since June 2016.
“In Prof. Edler we have secured an excellent scientist, and an internationally experienced and well-connected expert in innovation research,” says Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, president of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. “Our intention is to continue expanding our role as an innovation driver with excellence in research. That is why, for example, we established the Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research in July 2017, which offers professional strategic consultancy in this field and ensures that technological developments are firmly anchored in the social, economic and political spheres.”
“I am very pleased to return to the Fraunhofer ISI; as one of Europe’s leading innovation research institutes. The Fraunhofer ISI is highly competent in technology as well as in social sciences – a worldwide unique combination that comes up excellently to the special demands of innovation research and consulting. Moreover, the institute is closely connected to the technologically oriented Fraunhofer Institutes. It offers political and scientific stakeholders a uniquely broad spectrum of sociotechnical and socio-economic research as they strive to prepare and disseminate technological and
non-technological innovations and their strategic and political support,” says Prof. Edler, who is taking over management of the institute.
Institute Director Prof. Weissenberger-Eibl is delighted to be receiving such high-caliber support: “We are very pleased to welcome our new colleague, Prof. Edler, to our ever-expanding institute.”