6. Oct. 2014

Klaus Schuch succeeds Josef Hochgerner as Scientific Director of the Centre for Social Innovation

On 1 October 2014 Dr. Klaus Schuch followed Prof. Dr. Josef Hochgerner as scientific director of ZSI, the Vienna based Centre for Social Innovation, the oldest institute of social innovation of its kind.  The transfer was celebrated and Klaus Schuch and the entire personnel of ZSI thanked Josef Hochgerner, who founded the academic institute in 1990 and who lead it as scientific director for 24 years,  for his cutting-edge and formative work.

Klaus Schuch’s appointment was the result of a selection process in June 2014, evaluating a wide range of internationally recognized candidates. His priorities for the coming years are to safeguard and to extend ZSI's future capabilities

• by strategic academic development, in particular through the development, monitoring and critical reflection of the contribution of social innovation on society, economy and ecology in a dynamically evolving mission-oriented discourse on transformative science
• by increasing the international embedment of ZSI in research on societal and global challenges, whose resolutions are depending to a certain extent on progress in the field of R&D and (social) innovation (such as demographic change, migration and integration; governance of local, national and international labour markets; techno-globalisation, international RTI cooperation and competition; climate change and mitigation strategies; inclusive and sustainable mobility; big data; changing production and consumption behaviour including zero-growth strategies; legitimisation, evaluation and measurement of R&D etc.)
• by emphasising quality assurance through methodological excellence and responsible research and innovation.

"I wish that in five years ZSI will be nationally and internationally perceived and recognised as Austria's best performing social scientific institute in its core domains. Moreover, it should become a matter of course to consider, accompany and critically reflect social innovation in many different 'Lebenswelten' and research contexts",  says Klaus Schuch.

Tags: history of ZSI, social innovation