Thesis

Economic impact of innovation projects: Development of an early indicator

To support economic development through innovation, companies, research institutes and universities are being funded in various structurally weak regions in Germany. The aim is to use regional competencies to boost economic strength and competitiveness, create better employment opportunities and offer people prospects for the future. However, one of the most important political questions here is: How can we measure the effects of such policies? And most importantly, how do you measure them as early as possible so that valuable resources are not wasted? Established indicators such as unemployment rates, GDP, start-up and immigration rates are at best visible in the medium term. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to identify appropriate early indicators that allow for early measurement and evaluation of support policies.

Your tasks:
- Research existing indicators for measuring the success of projects for innovation-led regional structural change.
- research of key characteristics of leading indicators
- Creation of an evaluation scheme for the suitability of indicators as early indicators.


What we offer:
- Intense participation in the current BMBF project "Model Region Bioeconomy in the Rhenish Revier".
- You will investigate interesting research topics in future-oriented industries - it is no coincidence that the fields of innovation are being funded more than ever before
- Room for your own ideas and interests - both methodologically and in terms of content

If you are enthusiastic about the topic, please send your CV, a short cover letter and a current overview of your grades to selzner@time.rwth-aachen.de.

Keywords: innovation, structural change, quantitative methods, indicators, bioeconomy, hydrogen, strategy, funding policy