Integrating Social Sciences & Humanities in Enterprises Research and Innovation Activities / INSPIRE

The INSPIRE project addresses the still insufficient integration of social sciences and humanities perspectives into industrial innovation processes. Although the importance of social sciences and humanities knowledge for responsible innovation development is increasingly recognised, its application within companies often remains selective and unsystematic. Small and medium sized enterprises, in particular, face complex challenges that extend far beyond technological issues. These include organisational change, increasing market complexity, regulatory requirements, sustainability concerns, and the societal integration of new products and services. However, expertise from the social sciences and humanities is still often incorporated only at a late stage or in a purely advisory capacity, leaving significant potential for reducing risk and fostering user-oriented innovation untapped.

The reasons for this gap include differing working logics between academia and industry, as well as the lack of tested, practical, and transferable cooperation models, particularly for SMEs. INSPIRE addresses precisely this interface and aims to develop a practice oriented and sustainable framework for the systematic exchange of knowledge between the social sciences and humanities and industry related economic actors.

The project is structured into four work packages. The first step involves analysing existing collaborations between the social sciences and humanities and industry in Germany and across Europe. The focus lies on identifying the needs of companies and researchers as well as examining successful cooperation models (Work Package 1). Building on this analysis, a modular knowledge exchange framework will be developed that connects different forms of knowledge generation and application. Central elements include analytical perspectives on innovation processes, experimental and participatory practice formats, and the long-term institutional embedding of successful approaches. The objective is to create tools, methods, and cooperation models that can be flexibly applied across different sectors and regional contexts (Work Package 2).

In the subsequent phase of the project, a specific instrument of the framework will be piloted in a real-world application context and further developed together with companies, researchers, and students. The pilot phase serves to assess the practical applicability and relevance of the developed approaches and to enable iterative adjustments (Work Package 3). Finally, recommendations for policy makers and intermediary organisations will be developed to support the long-term integration of the tools into existing innovation ecosystems (Work Package 4).

INSPIRE is carried out at the IAT’s research department Innovation, Space & Culture and builds on extensive previous work in the fields of social innovation, knowledge ecosystems, and regional transformation.