Rainer Nägele

Rainer Nägele has been Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO since January 1, 2024. Dr. Nägele, who holds a doctorate in engineering, has also headed the »Human Resources and Service Management« research department at the Fraunhofer IAO since September 2021.  

The question of how the new comes into the world led the economics graduate to Fraunhofer IAO 18 years ago and still fascinates him today. During his time at Fraunhofer, Dr. Rainer Nägele coordinated research and consulting projects in the areas of strategy, service innovation, service engineering, business model development and value creation system design.  

From 2002 to 2012, he was also responsible for all major innovation policy consulting activities and innovation initiatives in which the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft was involved at federal level. In addition to his work on the »Council for Innovation and Growth« under Chancellor Angela Merkel, this also included the conception, realization and management of the »Research Union Economy-Science« for the implementation of the High-Tech Strategy for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.  

From April 2017 to August 2018, Dr. Rainer Nägele headed the office of the Technology Commissioner of the State Government of Baden-Württemberg and was responsible for the strategic work planning of the Technology Commissioner and its implementation. At European level, Dr. Nägele supports the respective European Council Presidents through his membership of the High Level Group Policy Innovation Management (2016-2022) and the High Level Group Systems Innovation (since mid-2022). He is the author of more than 50 publications in the fields of innovation, innovation management, service development, networked value creation, process optimization and management in national and international journals, books and conference papers.