Putting research into pratice

Without research, progress and innovation would grind to a halt. But how research findings are put into practice is a subject that must be investigated in detail in its own right.

This was the focus of work carried out by Fraunhofer IAO, together with Fraunhofer ISI, the Heinz Nixdorf Institute at the University of Paderborn and the company Research and Innovation VFI, belonging to the German Engineering Federation VDMA.

Innovation is an essential condition for ensuring companies remain competitive. But the term itself implies much more than scientific research and the findings that research generates. Real innovation is about putting what we discover into practice within industry, adapting new technologies and techniques to the existing production environment or integrating them into innovative products and services.

Designing ways to carry out this transfer successfully and efficiently was the subject of a joint project titled “Developing transfer mechanisms for the efficient and sustainable distribution of research findings within industrial practice using the example of mechatronics.” Here Fraunhofer IAO teamed up with colleagues from Fraunhofer ISI, the Heinz Nixdorf Institute at the University of Paderborn and the company Research and Innovation VFI, belonging to the German Engineering Federation VDMA.

All of the project’s key results have been brought together in one volume titled “Transfer of research findings to industrial practice – concepts, examples, recommendations.” This book features details of how to work up a transfer model, including its constituent stages, as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of various transfer mechanisms and the trials undertaken to test these mechanisms in practice. The book also offers recommendations on how best to build a successful transfer of results into future research projects.