Man can move a mountain. Innovation enables us to fly above the crest.

At the turn of the year 2022/23, Rolf handed over the management to Kathrin. To avoid withdrawal symptoms, Rolf stays with the company for selected projects as a freelancer. What else he is planning can be found on his homepage rolf-reiner.de or you can ask him directly.

Ute left the team at the end of January 2022. She is now fully focused on her practice of supervision and mindfulness. Mindfulness training gives you the opportunity to deal with stress and stress-related symptoms such as restlessness, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping through the night, grinding teeth, physical pain and conflict situations in a more relaxed manner. In consultation with your doctor or therapist, it can be helpful in dealing with various illnesses. In 8-week courses you will learn the basics and exercises of mindfulness. The courses take place in small groups. Each unit is deepened by practicing at home with CDs and written course material. Part of the training is a so-called mindfulness Saturday. The courses follow a verified curriculum and are certified by the central testing center for prevention.

Almost ten years ago we organized a workshop on “Open Innovation in a Globalised World” for DG Enterprise and Industry. Some of the conclusions still are worth to be kept in mind for further discussions and policy development in support of open innovation.

”An appropriate mix of regional policies, S&T policies and industrial policies is needed to support open innovation. This calls for improved coordination of these different policy areas.

Potential policy measures to support open innovation should aim to remove existing barriers for collaboration, to enable the development of open innovation structures and to ensure the creation and diffusion of knowledge flows within the innovation system. Of particular importance are the removal of barriers for co-operation across Europe and the availability of skilled work force with view of open innovation needs.”

Those interested in the results may download the workshop conclusions for further reading.

Mathias Stickel moved to a company in Untertürkheim on April 1, 2018, where he faces the challenges of new mobility concepts. We are looking forward to hearing from him what solutions he will come up with.

On July 1^st 2010, the statewide network automotive-bw started with an event at the Neue Schloss in Stuttgart. In November 2010, the series of events of the TecNetGroup “Electromobility” began, which was organized together with the colleagues from e-mobil BW. Supported by the mentors Klaus Harms and his successor Dieter Rödder (Robert Bosch GmbH) and Prof. Frank Gauterin (KIT-FAST) Rolf Reiner moderated the group at a total of 18 working meetings. The open working atmosphere, the insight into the working methods of the host companies and research institutes and the stimulating lectures were the impetus for numerous cooperations and joint projects beyond the exchange in the TecNetGroup. At the end of the first quarter of 2018, the group terminated its operation and will now join the “technology network transformation”.

In the autumn of 2016 we were at an out of home appointment in Schorndorf. The goal? A simple video that explains how a pedelec rental station actually works. With Lord Mayor Matthias Klopfer, we have not only found an ideal supporter for the action. He agreed to come in front of the camera as one of two leading actors. It was an exciting day of shooting, during which we were able to test all the ways of pedelec rental live and convince ourselves that the combination of rental and charging station actually works. Click here for the explanatory video.

In July 2015, we were allowed to start building the Project Office at the University of Stuttgart. Scientists at the university should find a competent contact point there, which not only offers administrative but also content-related sparring partners for the development of new projects. The Project Office assists university institutes in acquiring research funding and advises on grant applications. You can find more about this under the menu item “References”.

Three years after starting the project all partners of the EleNa project met on March 7th, 2012 in Schorndorf (birth place of Gottlieb Daimler). The project’s closing event was dedicated to wrap-up experiences and results and to demonstrate the successful cooperation amongst the group of 13 partners. EleNa was funded within the German recovery package II by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) as part of the pilot region e-mobility Region Stuttgart.The consortium developed the prototype of a electrification kit for diesel vans (conversion to parallel hybrid). The consortium consisting of small and medium enterprises and three public research organisations demonstrated the competencies of automotive suppliers in electric drive train development. “EleNa partners substantiated competence and willingness to cooperate of automotive suppliers in Baden-Württemberg”, complimented Peter Hofelich, Commissioner for SMEs and crafts at the Ministry of Finances and Economy Baden-Württemberg. Gottlieb Daimler (alias Karl-Otto Völker) himself conducted through the history of automotive inventions before the consortium met to present the project’s results. Volker Schiek (Kompetenznetzwerk Mechatronik, responsible for dissemination and communication) and Martin Naumann (Fraunhofer IPA, project coordinator) highlighted the need to re-invent the automobile in order to cover environmental and mobility needs of the future.

On 1st March 2012 Johannes Pallasch left us in the direction of Berlin. He now works for NOW GmbH as Team Leader Infrastructure and Programme Manager Charging Infrastructure (LIS).