Sebastian Pfotenhauer

Sebastian Pfotenhauer is Assistant Professor of Innovation Research and head of the Innovation, Society and Public Policy Research Group at the TUM School of Management and the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS). His research interests include innovation policy and strategy; regional innovation cultures; the global circulation of innovation models; responsible innovation; science and innovation in international settings; scientific and technological capacity-building; complex socio-technical transformations; and responsible innovation. Before joining TU Munich, Sebastian was a research scientist and lecturer with the MIT Technology & Policy Program and the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center, as well as a research fellow at the Harvard Program on Science, Technology and Society. He has served as consultant on innovation policy to various regional and national governments, as well as internal consultant for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, France. His work has appeared, among other outlets in Research Policy, Social Studies of Science, Nature, and Issues in Science and Technology. He holds an S.M. in Technology Policy from MIT and a PhD in Physics from the University of Jena, Germany, and has received post-doctoral training at MIT and Harvard. He enjoys teaching graduate level classes in science and technology policy and STS, and (time permitting) playing the violin in various ensembles.

Selected current research projects

SCALINGS – Scaling up Co-creation: Prof. Pfotenhauer is the coordinator of SCALINGS, a EU-funded 4 MEUR H2020-project with 10 European partners. SCALINGS studies the unique uses and results of co-creation innovation instruments in two technology domains (robotics, urban energy) across 10 countries with regard to transferability and scalability to inform policy strategies in Europe and beyond.

Regional Innovation Cultures: In this DFG-funded project, Prof. Pfotenhauer and his team investigate how 5 German city-regions reinvent themselves through innovation strategies and reconcile innovation imperatives with socio-political factors and local identity.

Responsible Innovation in Transnational Settings: In collaboration with the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, we investigate the emergence of a responsible innovation paradigm for Neurotechnology across OECD counties.

Test Beds Innovation: This project looks at “test beds” and “living labs” as an emerging innovation practice that changes the roles of researchers, policy makers, companies, and citizens/users. We study cases from energy transitions, mobility, and robotics.

The Future of Mobility: This project explores visions of disruptive changes in transportation – including electrification, autonomous driving, car-sharing, and a post-car societies – through past and present sociotechnical imaginaries.

Cultivating Engagement: Together with researchers and companies from the Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK, this project studies citizen engagement in food innovation (specifically indoor vertical farming) for healthy and sustainable food cultures. The project is part of the European EIT Food consortium.

Key Publications

• Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.; Jasanoff, Sheila: Tyfield, David; Lave, Rebecca; Randalls, Samuel; Thorpe, Charles (Ed.): Traveling imaginaries: The 'practice turn' in Innovation Policy and the global circulation of innovation models. Routledge, 2017, 31
• Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.: Siddiqi, Afreen;Diaz-Anadon, Laura (Ed.): Co-producing Emirati science and society at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Gerlach Press, 2017
• Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M; Juhl, Joakim: Godin, Benoit; Vinck, Dominique (Ed.): Innovation and the political state: Beyond the myth of technologies and markets. Edward Elgar, 2017, 68-94
• Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.; Jasanoff, Sheila: Panacea or diagnosis? Imaginaries of innovation and the ‘MIT model’ in three political cultures. Social Studies of Science, 2017, 1-28
• Hird, Mackenzie D.;Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.: How complex international partnerships shape domestic research clusters: Difference-in-difference network formation and research re-orientation in the MIT Portugal Program. Research Policy 46 (3), 2017, 557-572
• Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.;Wood, Danielle;Roos, Daniel;Newman, Dava: Architecting complex international science, technology, and innovation partnerships (CISTIPs): A study of four global MIT collaborations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 104 (3), 2016, 38--56
• Vincent-Lancrin, Stéphan;Kärkkäinen, Kiira;Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M.;Atkinson, Adele;Jacotin, Gwenénaël;Rimini, Michele: Measuring Innovation in Education. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2014
• Schwoerer, H.;Pfotenhauer, S.;Jäckel, O.;Amthor, K.-U.;Liesfeld, B.;Ziegler, W.;Sauerbrey, R.;Ledingham, K. W. D.;Esirkepov, T.: Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets. Nature 439 (7075), 2006, 445--448