As in previous years, our institute was well represented at the renowned Geography of Innovation (GeoInno) conference, which took place at Corvinus University in Budapest at the end of January 2026. The conference is one of the most important global events for scientists researching the spatial dimension of innovation.
Steffen Bauerochse presented findings from the DFG project " Pathways to Sustainability Based on Advanced Frugal Innovation: Innovation Generation and Innovation Scaling under Resource Constraints (AFRIN)”. Under the theme “Mapping the development and scaling of Advanced Frugal Innovation: Actor networks and process structures in South Indian Startups,” he demonstrated how strongly “Advanced Frugal Innovations” (AFI) processes in South Indian startups are influenced by local actors and in which contexts AFIs emerge.
Rolf Sternberg presented a paper written jointly with his doctoral students Christoph Friedrich and Anne Kagel, entitled “Specific modes of innovations need specific innovation policies: the case of DUI innovations in lagging regions,” which was developed as part of the BMBF research project “DUI.REG: Measuring of the Doing-Using-Interacting mode of innovation in structurally-weak regions”. The presentation argued, on the basis of a broad qualitative empirical foundation (209 interviews with SME managers and intermediaries from 12 German districts and independent cities), in favor of redesigning regional innovation policy in structurally weak regions of Germany with a clear focus on DUI innovations in SMEs.
"Spatial patterns of skill-driven internal migration: Changes before, during and after the pandemic“ was the topic of the presentation by Louis Knüpling (Utrecht University), who presented a paper written jointly with Rolf Sternberg and Anne Otto (IAB Saarbrücken and IWKG) as part of the ongoing DFG project ”ReDiCOV - Regional differences in the economic effects of the Covid-19 outbreak: Home office and the role of digitalization." Based on unique data from the IAB, the empirical analysis of internal migration before, during, and after the pandemic shows for the first time that rural regions are benefiting more from migration gains after the pandemic than urban regions, unlike before the pandemic and before the digitalization-driven increase in remote working and home office.
Kerstin Schaefer presented her work on "Data for researching the Geography of (Tech) Standardization" in a special session about new data and methods for geographical innovation research. She explained why standardization is a highly important topic for researchers in economic geography and showed different data types and sources that can be used to better understand it's (regional) impact.
The IWKG would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the organizers on the successful conference and to thank all participants for the lively exchange of ideas. We are already looking forward to the next edition of GeoInno, which will take place in Porto in 2028.
