On the initiative of the honorary chairman of the D.I.E. Prof. Norbert Haugg, former President of the German Patent and Trademark Office, the Diesel Medal Graduate School was created and research activities were bundled there in the last two years. The research focus is on the current doctoral program: “Digital transformation in the industrial sector”. The impact for businesses is always at the center of the research work. During the reporting period, 15 industry case studies on  modern IP management and two position papers were published. The mentoring program has continued to grow and now includes almost 50 heads of IP who actively support the doctoral students and bring current issues from industry into the research activities. The graduate colloquium at FESTO was a great success. Doctoral projects were presented and practical aspects of the research topics discussed.

The non-profit German Institute for Invention has invested a lot in the past two years. The establishment of the Dean’s Office, which also financially supports the research activities, made various initiatives possible. Our thanks go to the deans of the Diesel Board of Trustees:

  • Thomas Böck, CEO CLAAS Gruppe, Managing Director Technology & Systems, CLAAS KGaA mbH
  • Dr. h.c. Oliver Jung, CEO, Festo AG & Co. KG
  • Dr. Stefan Kampmann, Chief Technology Officer, Osram Licht AG
  • Dr. Anke Kleinschmidt, Member of the board of directors, Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG
  • Thomas Ricker, Member of the board of directors, Krones AG
  • Dr. Walter Stadlbauer, CTO/COO, Schüco International KG
  • Dr.-Ing. Thomas Steffen, Managing Director Research & Development, Rittal GmbH & Co. KG

The deans provide the thematic guidelines for the research program for the Diesel Medal. This guideline competence ensures that the research activities are geared towards the entrepreneurial challenges of technology-oriented, innovative and manufacturing medium-sized companies. Many activities in the graduate school, including the establishment of the excellence groups, are only possible with the support of the advisory board with expertise on technology potential and innovation systems. Our thanks go to Siemens, Microsoft, Bertrandt, MHP Porsche and Phoenix Design.

Digitalization is transforming economic and social structures at a speed and extent never seen before. The change in the economy is fundamental. Products, services, customer relationships and value chains are being restructured. These challenges are dealt with in the Graduate School with the following main topics:

  • The role of IP in Industry 4.0, Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Alexander Wurzer, Center for International Intellectual Property Studies, University of Strasbourg
  • Organization of innovation and value creation from digital, production-related data, Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Thorsten Posselt, Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW, University of Leipzig
  • Business model innovations in the digital change, Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Gunther Herr, Steinbeis University Berlin

The great success of the Graduate School in the last two years was only possible because the right people put their heart and soul into it. We thank our research and university partners, the advisory board, the technical-scientific board, the industrial partners, the sponsoring members, the donors and the executive board of the D.I.E., the honorary chairman and the team of the German Institute for Invention, which works tirelessly on the further development and implementation of Rudolf Diesel’s ideas.

Here you can download the activity report.