Heidelberger Brücke

24 October 2024

Universities as Keystones of Innovation Ecosystems for Sustainability

Prof. Dr. Søren Salomo, TU Berlin

The concept of innovation ecosystems has recently gained increased attention in academia and policy as a framework, which conceptualizes a broader set-up of actors jointly pushing innovation in specific challenge areas. Using the ecosystem analogy, this framework centers on the divers and dynamic interactions between different actors to gain insights into innovation development speed and direction. For sustainability challenges stemming from climate change, chemical pollution, or decreasing biodiversity such an ecosystem perspective may become valuable, as it allows for targeted policy interventions to create needed momentum. This is even more important when considering the need for substantial innovation, often rooted in significant scientific groundbreaking. Hence, re-considering the role of universities as central actors in such ecosystems may offer novel development perspectives.

Søren Salomo is a professor for technology and innovation management at TU Berlin and an adjunct professor at the Center for Entrepreneurship at DTU, Copenhagen. He is a member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and speaker of the professor group in the the Academic Senate of TU Berlin. He holds a number of advisory roles related to technology and innovation management and among others represents the Berlin University Alliance in the German Climate Consortium (DKK). His research is concerned with corporate innovation management with special focus on supporting highly innovative ventures and digital transformation for innovation. His research also touches upon the issue of firms navigating in emerging technology landscapes and engaging in innovation ecosystems.

 

5 December 2024

Nature Based Solutions

Dr. Marina Treskova, Heidelberg University

Marina Treskova is a junior group leader. She has completed her PhD in Health Economics, where she focused on the model-based evaluation of public health interventions such as vaccination and cancer screening. She has also been trained in Biology and Epidemiology. Her current research interest and focus lie on the impacts of changing climate on infectious diseases such as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. She is particularly interested in investigating climate change and land use effects on zoonotic pathogen spillover from reservoir host animals to humans and domestic animals. Further, her domain includes interventions that go beyond conventional public health and target disease emergence at the source. These include upstream prevention policies, mosquito-bite control, and nature-based solutions. In her research, she utilizes different models and methods of intervention science to explore effective and cost-effective ways to prevent the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases.

 

16 January 2025

Focus CSRD: Challenges and Opportunities of Sustainability Reporting

Dr. Nicole Schmidt, DZ BANK AG & Dr. Max Jungmann, Heidelberg University

Join us for an insightful discussion on the "Challenges and Opportunities of Sustainability Reporting," featuring Nicole Schmidt from DZ Bank and Max Jungmann from the Heidelberg Center for the Environment, Momentum Novum, and FALK Momentum. Max will kick off the session with an overview of key regulations under the EU Green Deal, focusing on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Nicole will then dive into the practical aspects, sharing lessons learned from her experience in the financial sector, and exploring the challenges and opportunities of implementing these new reporting standards.

Nicole Schmidt is the Head of Sustainability Reporting in the Strategy and Group Development department at DZ BANK AG, Germany's second largest banking group. She leads key sustainability initiatives across the DZ BANK Group, including spearheading the CSRD implementation. Nicole holds a PhD from Heidelberg University and has been a lecturer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology since 2019. Her research focuses on climate policy and sustainable finance, and she has been an official observer at multiple UN climate conferences.

Max Jungmann is Founder and CEO of Momentum Novum and FALK Momentum and Executive Manager of the Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) at Heidelberg University. He holds a PhD in Political Science and focuses on the climate change-health nexus and sustainability transformation challenges in his research. He is a sustainability consultant and supports organisations with compliance, leadership, innovation, strategy, and transformation challenges. Max also teaches at various universities and business schools, as well as the German Foreign Office.

 

 

6 February 2025

Innovation in Energy Systems

Prof. Dr. Maria Sharmina, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UK

Energy systems are undergoing a radical transformation as societies strive to shift towards more sustainable forms of energy. Energy transitions are complex, long-term processes typically unfolding over decades. Historical shifts - like wood to coal, or coal to oil - have taken 40-70 years. However, with deliberate policy support, transitions can potentially be accelerated. Research reveals several crucial insights about how energy innovations emerge and spread, and how they can be sped up. This talk will focus on lessons from successful energy innovations and the role of policy "mixes" (i.e. combining different types of support) in driving such innovations.

 

Maria Sharmina Maria Sharmina is Professor in Energy and Sustainability at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the School of Engineering, University of Manchester. She is a Co-Director at Policy@Manchester, the University's sector-leading policy engagement institute. Her research focuses on innovative business models and techno-economic assessments in a range of sectors including energy systems and sustainable buildings. Maria served as Senior Academic Advisor with the UK Government Office for Science and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), working on the Net Zero Foresight project from 2021–2023. Maria’s educational background is in economics and statistics.