Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer
Tenure Track Assistant Professor (TTAP) of Innovation Research
Innovation ResearchSebastian Pfotenhauer is Assistant Professor for Innovation Research and head of the Innovation, Society and Public Policy Research Group at the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS) and the TUM School of Management, both Technical University of Munich. He is also the coordinator of the EU-Horizon2020 project SCALINGS (“Scaling up co-creation: Avenues and Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Innovation”) – a EUR 4 Million flagship initiative investigating use of new collaborative innovation formats such as living labs and pre-commercial procurement in robotics, autonomous driving, and urban energy systems across 10 countries.
Sebastian’s research interests include regional innovation strategies and innovation cultures; the adoption and global circulation of “best practice” innovation models; co-creation and responsible innovation practices; science and innovation in international settings; governance and institutions of science and innovation; and capacity-building for development.
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 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, the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook, 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.
- Innovation Cultures: Co-production of technoscientific and social/political order in the innovation society
- Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
- National, regional, and institutional innovation strategies
- Global circulation and adoption of innovation models
- Innovation and social responsibility
- Complex international science, technology and innovation partnerships
- Capacity-building in science, technology, higher education, innovation
- Governance of complex sociotechnical systems
- Test beds & Living Labs in Energy und Mobility Transitions
- CISTIPs: Complex International Science, Technology, and Innovation Partnerships,
- Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation,
- Technoscientific Constitutionalism, 10/2017 - 07/2029
- SCALINGS – Scaling up Co-Creation: Avenues and Limits for integrating Society in Science and Innovation (EU Horizon 2020), 09.2018 – 09.2021
- Understanding Regional Innovation Cultures, 04.2018 – 04.2021
- Engels, F., Wentland, A., Pfotenhauer S.M. “Testing future societies? Developing a framework for test beds and living labs as instruments of innovation governance,” Research Policy (2019).
- Guridi, J.A., Pertuze, J.A, Pfotenhauer S.M. “Natural Laboratories as Policy Instruments for Technological Learning and Institutional Capacity Building: The Case of Chile’s Astronomy Cluster” Research Policy (forthcoming).
- Garden, H., Winickoff, D., Frahm N. and Pfotenhauer S.M. “Responsible Innovation in Neurotechnology Enterprises” OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers (2018).
- Pfotenhauer, S.M. “Building global innovation hubs: The ‘MIT Model’ in three start-up universities.” In: Wisnioski, M. et al. (eds.) Does America need more innovators? MIT Press, pp. 191-220 (2019)
- Pfotenhauer, S.M., Juhl, J., Aarden, E. “Challenging the ‘Deficit Model’ of Innovation: Framing Policy Issues under the Innovation Imperative,” Research Policy (2018).
- Winickoff, D. and Pfotenhauer S.M. “Technology Governance and the Innovation Process,” OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook (2018).
- Pfotenhauer, S.M. and Jasanoff, S. “Panacea or diagnosis? Imaginaries of innovation and the “MIT model” in three political cultures,” Social Studies of Science (2017).
- Hird, M. and Pfotenhauer, S.,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 (2017).
- Introduction to Science and Technology Policy (SS)
- Innovation, Society, and Public Policy (WS)
- Responsible Governance of Science, Technology, and Innovation
- What Future of Mobility? Engaging Technologies, Politics, Economic Scenarios, and Practices
- STS 1: Practices and Politics of Science and Technology
- Technology & Society (Economics, Politics, Ethics, Law, & Media)
- Science and Democracy Network (SDN)
- Society for the Social Studies of Science [4S]
- European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
- IEEE
- ESYS2 – Energy Systems of the Future, Joint Project of the German Academies
- Scientific Advisory Board – TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice
- Project co-lead (MIT) for NSF Grant „Technology, Collaboration, Learning: Modeling Complex International Innovation Partnerships,“ 2013-2016
- Project collaborator (Harvard) for NSF Grant „Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation: The practice turn and its transnational implementation,“ (2015-2017)
- Leading Technology Policy Fellowship (MIT), MIT Technology & Policy Program (2010-2013)
- Dissertation with distinction („Summa Cum Laude“)
- MIT Education Excellence Award for graduation with 5.0 GPA
- ERP Fellowship (European Recovery Program), German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy / German National Academic Foundation (2008-2010)
- Undergraduate fellowship, Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst („Academic Foundation of the Protestant Churches“), (2000-2005).