Steffen Braun

Dr.-Ing. Steffen Braun has been Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart since 1 January 2024. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Board of Directors and Head of the »Urban System Design« research department at the Fraunhofer IAO. His research focuses on the question of how cities and urban systems can be designed to be climate-friendly, open to technology and adaptable. 

Steffen Braun studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Stuttgart, SUNY Buffalo and Tampere University of Technology from 2003-2009. He completed his doctorate at the interface of urban development and technology management with distinction in 2023 on the »Development of a model language for innovation diffusion in urban systems« at the University of Stuttgart.  

The graduate architect and urban planner began his research activities in 2009 at the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management IAT at the University of Stuttgart. In 2010, he moved to the Fraunhofer IAO and just one year later co-founded the Fraunhofer Morgenstadt initiative together with the then Fraunhofer President Hans-Jörg Bullinger. Since then, Morgenstadt has established itself as a growing network of more than ten Fraunhofer Institutes, numerous corporate and city partners, several spin-offs and many implementation projects in Germany, Europe and worldwide. In the course of his research activities, Steffen Braun has provided technical support to the office of the National Platform City of the Future (NPZ), the Smart City Charter (SCC) of the Federal Government and the National Coordination and Transfer Office for the Model Projects Smart Cities (MPSC), among others.  

Steffen Braun is a member of several expert committees, advisory boards and working groups on urban technology and innovation management, administrative digitization, climate-neutral cities and open smart cities.  

He is the author of more than 40 scientific publications and papers.