Innovations can have different facets, ranging from technical and institutional innovations to societal innovations such as new governance structures or incentive schemes. Research on processes leading to the generation, local contextualization, implementation and adoption of innovations is key to developing policy recommendations.

This is closely linked to the other research areas but in particular provides application-oriented tools and approaches for the ‚real-life‘ situations of practitioners, policy-makers or potential end-users.

It comprises research on the perception of new societal and ecological challenges across different stakeholder groups, on information and communication technology utilization, and on effective awareness-raising and capacity-building to foster the implementation of promising innovations in societies.

(Photo: Yesim Pacal, Germany)