• Project description:

IPACST investigates how intellectual property management (IP models) supports sustainable innovation. In this context, different types and combinations of IP models and business models are analyzed for their relevance and function for sustainability. In order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of such IP models, we bring the areas of sustainability, IP- and Innovation management as well as political, legal and engineering sciences interdisciplinary together through the four involved partners. The lack of empirical data requires an exploratory research approach to provide a theoretical basis for the role of IP models in accelerating transformations towards a sustainable economy in different sectors and countries. The empirical part focuses on products based on closed-loop concepts that improve production and consumption patterns, as well as on the energy sector in industrialized, emerging and developing countries, especially India. The most important aspects of sustainable business models are considered, e.g. sharing-based product service models based on access and benefits rather than product ownership. We also examine sectors with global value chains and technology transfer activities. This combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches enables different stakeholders of sustainability transformations to select appropriate combinations of business models and IP models in different situations. The results are therefore important for actors who deal with social transformation towards sustainability, for example from politics, research funding and education. By providing insights into IP models and business models for the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations in renewable energies and various manufacturing industries, we also address companies. The project is financially supported by the Belmont Forum and NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Transformations to Sustainability, which is co-funded by DLR/BMBF FONA-SÖF, GCRF, ESRC, VR, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020. (https://ip4sustainability.org/)

• Duration of the project: 01.01.2019 – 31.05.2022

• Scientific coordination / Overall project management:

Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Eppinger (Elisabeth.Eppinger@HTW-Berlin.de)
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin, Department 5 / Design and Culture
Wilhelminenhofstraße 75A, 12459 Berlin

• Project management: Dr. Martina Kovac (martina.kovac@fu-berlin.de)

• Project partners:

HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences
Indian Institut of Science
University of Cambridge
University Lund