“The inHaus-Center is supposed to become an open forum for ideas and promote practical innovations”, Wolfgang Gröting hopes.

He manages the Fraunhofer-inHaus-Center in Duisburg since October 1^st 2017 and is especially excited about the cooperation with motivated and creative scientists. Their great amount of know-how holds great potential for innovations, explains Gröting.

The 47 year-old is an experienced engineer and innovation manager. During the past 20 years Gröting had leading positions at Siemens and later at Philips – his last position was at the Dutch technology firm Philips, where he managed the global innovation management. There he successfully initialized new business ideas and was responsible for a significantly higher project efficiency.

This experience and knowledge in the areas of telecommunication, lighting, as well as the generation of novel business models, is something that Gröting wants to introduce into the work at the inHaus-Center. As an engineer he has a good sense for innovations and appreciates the achievement of past pioneering work: “I’m impressed by the innovative strength and the inventive talent of people. For example the assistance systems which facilitate or even enable the lives of elders in their own home. Therefore I am very happy to be part of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft which has driven many great innovations forward with their 24,000 employees.” The primary focus in the future will be on areas like health, healthy aging and care. Also, areas regarding Smart Home will be of great importance in the inHaus-Center. At the same time he is going to introduce many fresh ideas from the industry into the research at the Fraunhofer Institute. Due to his good networking he is also able to connect with partners from the economy.

While working with colleagues and customers he considers himself as bridge builder. The long time working in a Dutch firm left a lasting impression, he says. He is especially impressed with the pragmatic work method of the Dutch: “Direct communication beyond department boundaries is common and that is what I practice as well.”

The family man grew up in Münsterland, but has been living in Oberhausen for many years and describes himself as the “happy part” of the Ruhr district. Thus, he is well positioned to understand both colleagues and partners.

Good luck!