Prof. Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer
STS Department Head
Associate Professor for Innovation Research
Program Coordinator, M.A. RESET
Sebastian Pfotenhauer is the Department Head of the Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) and Carl von Linde Professor for Innovation Research at Technical University of Munich (TUM). As an STS and innovation scholar, he is one of the leading voices in Germany on the relationship between technology and societal change, the inequalities and political economies of innovation, regional innovation cultures, the governance of emerging technologies, and responsible innovation practices.
Sebastian is an expert on building large national and international research consortia with innovative public engagement components. He currently serves as the coordinator of the Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (MCube), a EUR 50 Million flagship initiative on sustainable mobility innovation funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research. Among other things, MCube has pioneered an integrative multi-stakeholder with more than 50 organizations, including with a major presence at the IAA 2023 Citizen Lab, to drive just mobility transitions. From 2018-2022, he also coordinated of the EU-Horizon2020 project SCALINGS (Scaling up co-creation: Avenues and Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Innovation) – a EUR 4 Million European project investigating use of new public engagement formats such as living labs and pre-commercial procurement in robotics, autonomous driving, and urban energy systems. He has been the PI on several DFG funded projects, e.g. on Regional Innovation Cultures, Europe-making through research and innovation, and Technoscientific Constitutionalism. At present, he serves the director of the TUM Master’s Program Responsibility in Science, Engineering and Technology (RESET) funded by the Elite Network Bavaria (ENB) and as Head of the Advisory Board for the Technology in Dialog section of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), and spearheads TUM’s efforts for a Cluster of Excellence on Transformative Technologies and Societal Change (TransforM).
Before joining TUM, Sebastian was a research scientist and lecturer at the MIT Technology & Policy Program as well as a fellow at the Harvard Program on Science, Technology and Society. He regularly serves as consultant on innovation and technology governance to regional and national governments as well as international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). His work has appeared, among other outlets, in Social Studies of Science, Research Policy, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Science Technology & Human Values, Science and Public Policy, and Issues in Science and Technology. He holds an S.M. in Technology Policy from MIT, a PhD in Physics from the University of Jena, Germany, and has received post-doctoral training in STS and public policy at Harvard and MIT. In his spare time, Sebastian co-runs the queer-feminist bookstore glitch in Munich and enjoys playing the violin, especially with the Stüba Philharmonie.
For a recent interview about Sebastians research, click here.
- Innovation Cultures: Co-production of technoscientific and social/political order in the innovation society
- Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
- National, regional, and institutional innovation strategies
- Global circulation and adoption of innovation models
- Innovation and social responsibility
- Complex international science, technology and innovation partnerships
- Capacity-building in science, technology, higher education, innovation
- Governance of complex sociotechnical systems
- Regionale Innovationskulturen 2.0 verstehen: Erkundung "verlorener", "versteckter" und "kreativer" Innovationsregionen
- Comparative Covid Response: Crisis, Knowledge, Politics, 01.03.2020-31.12.2023
- Verborgene Regionen: Erforschung von Innovation in der Peripherie, 04.2018 – 04.2021
- Test beds & Living Labs in Energy und Mobility Transitions
- CISTIPs: Complex International Science, Technology, and Innovation Partnerships,
- Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation,
- Verantwortungsvolle Innovation in Transnationalen Governance Settings,
- Technoscientific Constitutionalism, 10/2017 - 07/2029
- SCALINGS – Scaling up Co-Creation: Avenues and Limits for integrating Society in Science and Innovation (EU Horizon 2020), 05.2018 – 07.2021
- Regionale Innovationskulturen verstehen, 04.2018 – 04.2021
- METAFORIS: Making Europe through and for its research infrastructures, 01.01.2019 – 01.06.2023
Journal Articles
- Cuevas-Garcia, C., F. Pepponi, & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2024. “Maintaining Innovation: How to Make Sewer Robots and Innovation Policy Work in Barcelona.” Social Studies of Science 54 (3): 352–76.
- Buocz, T., S. Pfotenhauer, & I. Eisenberger. 2023. “Regulatory Sandboxes in the AI Act: Reconciling Innovation and Safety?” Law, Innovation and Technology 15 (2): 1–33.
- Knopf, S., N. Frahm, & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2023. “How Neurotech Start-Ups Envision Ethical Futures: Demarcation, Deferral, Delegation.” Science and Engineering Ethics 29 (1): 4.
- Pfotenhauer, S.. 2023. “From ‘More Innovation’ to ‘Better Innovation’?” Engaging Science, Technology, and Society 9 (2).
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., A. Wentland, & L. Ruge. 2023. “Understanding Regional Innovation Cultures: Narratives, Directionality, and Conservative Innovation in Bavaria.” Research Policy 52 (3): 104704.
- Ruess, A. K., R. Müller, & S. M Pfotenhauer. 2023. “Opportunity or Responsibility? Tracing Co-Creation in the European Policy Discourse.” Science and Public Policy 50 (3): 433–44.
- Frahm, N., T. Doezema, & S. Pfotenhauer. 2022. “Fixing Technology with Society: The Coproduction of Democratic Deficits and Responsible Innovation at the OECD and the European Commission.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 47 (1): 174–216.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., N. Frahm, D. Winickoff, D.Benrimoh, J. Illes, & G. Marchant. 2021. “Mobilizing the Private Sector for Responsible Innovation in Neurotechnology.” Nature Biotechnology 39 (6): 661–64.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., B. Laurent, K. Papageorgiou, & J. Stilgoe. 2021. “The Politics of Scaling.” Social Studies of Science 52 (1): 3–34.
- Guridi, J. A., J. A. Pertuze, & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2020. “Natural Laboratories as Policy Instruments for Technological Learning and Institutional Capacity Building: The Case of Chile’s Astronomy Cluster.” Research Policy 49 (2): 103899.
- Engels, F., A. Wentland, & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2019. “Testing Future Societies? Developing a Framework for Test Beds and Living Labs as Instruments of Innovation Governance.” Research Policy 48 (9): 103826.
- Gaglio, G., B. Godin, & S. Pfotenhauer. 2019. “X-Innovation: Re-Inventing Innovation Again and Again.” NOvation: Critical Studies of Innovation, no. 1, 1–17.
- Garden, H., D. E. Winickoff, N. M. Frahm, & S. Pfotenhauer. 2019. “Responsible Innovation in Neurotechnology Enterprises.” OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2019 (05).
- Pfotenhauer, S., & N. Frahm. 2019. “Corporate Social Responsibility in an Innovation Era: A Conceptual Exploration.” Academy of Management Proceedings 2019 (1): 16544.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., J. Juhl, & E. Aarden. 2019. “Challenging the ‘Deficit Model’ of Innovation: Framing Policy Issues under the Innovation Imperative.” Research Policy 48 (4): 895–904.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., & S. Jasanoff. 2017. “Panacea or Diagnosis? Imaginaries of Innovation and the ‘MIT Model’ in Three Political Cultures.” Social Studies of Science 47 (6): 783–810.
- Hird, M. D., & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2017. “How Complex International Partnerships Shape Domestic Research Clusters: Difference-in-Difference Network Formation and Research Re-Orientation in the MIT Portugal Program.” Research Policy 46 (3): 557–72.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., D. Wood, D. Roos, & D. Newman. 2016. “Architecting Complex International Science, Technology and Innovation Partnerships (CISTIPs): A Study of Four Global MIT Collaborations.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 104 (March):38–56.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M. 2013. “Trade Policy Is Science Policy.” Issues in Science and Technology 30 (Fall Issue).
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., Jacobs, J. S., Pertuze, J., Newman, D. J., & Roos, D. 2013. “Seeding change through international university collaboration: The MIT-Portugal Program as a driver of internationalization, networking, and innovation.” Higher Education Policy 26: 217-242.
- Vincent-Lancrin, S., & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2013. “Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education: where do we stand?” International Organisations Research Journal 8(1): 188-263.
- Jones, C. F., K. Saha, S. M. Pfotenhauer, & S. Jasanoff. 2012. “Learning from Fukushima.” Issues in Science and Technology 28 (Spring Issue).
Book Chapters
- Pfotenhauer, S. M. 2019. “Building Global Innovation Hubs: The MIT Model in Three Start-up Universities.” In Does America Need More Innovators?, edited by M. Wisnioski, E. Hintz, & M. Klein, 191–220. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., & S. Jasanoff. 2017. “Traveling Imaginaries: The ‘practice Turn’ in Innovation Policy and the Global Circulation of Innovation Models.” In The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Science, edited by D. Tyfield, R. Lave, S. Randalls, & C. Thorpe, 416–28. London: Routledge.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M. 2017. “Co-Producing Emirati Science and Society at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.” In Science and Technology Development in the Gulf States, edited by A. Siddiqi & L. D. Anadon, 89–113. Gulf Studies. Gerlach Press.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., & J. Juhl. 2017. “Innovation and the Political State: Beyond the Myth of Technologies and Markets.” In Critical Studies of Innovation: Alternative Approaches to the pro-Innovation Bias, edited by B. Godin & D. Vinck, 68–94. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Vincent-Lancrin, S., & S.M. Pfotenhauer. 2013. Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education: where do we stand? In Rationales for Internationalisation, edited by M. Larionova & O. Perfilieva. Moscow: Logos Publishing House.
Policy Reports, Briefs, Commentary and Newspaper Pieces
- Pfotenhauer, S. 2021. “Wissenschaftspolitik: Gesucht: Ein Zukunftsfahrplan.” Die Zeit, December 8, 2021.
- Jasanoff, S., S. Hilgartner, B. Hurlbut, et al. 2020. Comparative Covid Response: Crisis, Knowledge, Politics (Interim Report). Schmidt Futures Forum, Cornell University and Harvard Kennedy School.
- Garden, H., D. Winickoff, N. Frahm, & S. Pfotenhauer. 2019. Responsible innovation in neurotechnology enterprises. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Paper, 2019/05.
- Maasen, S., I. Farias, U. Meyer, R. Müller, J.-H. Passoth, S. M. Pfotenhauer, W. Pietsch, & K. Zachmann. 2017. Raising the stakes for STS in Germany. EASST Review, 36(1), 24–33. The Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Munich, Germany.
- Pfotenhauer, S. M., & U. Meyer, U. 2017. Innovation & Society: The diversity of innovation practice. EASST Review, 36(1), 33–37. The Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Munich, Germany.
- Vincent-Lancrin, S., D. Fischer, & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2015. Ensuring Quality in Cross-Border Higher Education: Implementing the UNESCO/OECD Guidelines. OECD Report. Retrieved from
- Vincent-Lancrin, S., Kärkkäinen, K., Pfotenhauer, S. M., Atkinson, A., Jacotin, G., & Rimini, M. 2014. Measuring Innovation in Education: A New Perspective. OECD Report. Retrieved from
- Roos, D., & S. Pfotenhauer, et al. 2013. Sustainable prosperity through innovation: Expert panel report on transforming Alberta’s innovation system. Report prepared for the Government of Alberta, Canada.
- Vincent-Lancrin, S., & S. M. Pfotenhauer. 2012. Guidelines for quality provision in cross-border higher education: where do we stand? OECD Manual and OECD Working Paper Series, March 21.
- Introduction to Science and Technology Policy (SS)
- Innovation, Society, and Public Policy (WS)
- Responsible Governance of Science, Technology, and Innovation
- What Future of Mobility? Engaging Technologies, Politics, Economic Scenarios, and Practices
- MCTS 1: Practices and Politics of Science and Technology
- Technology & Society (Economics, Politics, Ethics, Law, & Media)
- Science and Democracy Network (SDN)
- Society for the Social Studies of Science [4S]
- European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
- IEEE
- ESYS2 – Energy Systems of the Future, Joint Project of the German Academies
- Scientific Advisory Board – TATuP – Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice
- Project co-lead (MIT) for NSF Grant „Technology, Collaboration, Learning: Modeling Complex International Innovation Partnerships,“ 2013-2016
- Project collaborator (Harvard) for NSF Grant „Traveling Imaginaries of Innovation: The practice turn and its transnational implementation,“ (2015-2017)
- Leading Technology Policy Fellowship (MIT), MIT Technology & Policy Program (2010-2013)
- Dissertation with distinction („Summa Cum Laude“)
- MIT Education Excellence Award for graduation with 5.0 GPA
- ERP Fellowship (European Recovery Program), German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy / German National Academic Foundation (2008-2010)
- Undergraduate fellowship, Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst („Academic Foundation of the Protestant Churches“), (2000-2005).