The “Made in Germany” logo stands for ingenuity, rigour, state-of-the-art technology and quality. Innovative technologies can help us to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable economy. acatech is committed to combining technological innovations with social innovations. To this end, the Academy brings together experts from academia, industry and civil society organisations in order to develop visions for the future and feed them into the public and policy debate. One particularly notable example is the concept of Industrie 4.0, which originated at acatech.

The rapidly growing digitalisation of our economy and society is changing the face of production and work in Germany. Following on from mechanisation, electrification and automation, a second wave of digitalisation is now ushering in the fourth industrial revolution.

Henning Kagermann, Chairman of the acatech Board of Trustees

As the voice of the technological sciences, acatech actively engages in innovation policy debates. The Academy’s fundamental values are set out in its guidelines on providing innovation policy advice. acatech endeavours to raise awareness of new key technologies from an early stage, reliably assess their potential impacts and identify options for their development. Since 2010, acatech has provided advice to the Federal Government through the Innovation Dialogue between the Federal Government, industry and science. Every six months, a steering committee chaired by Henning Kagermann and comprising leading figures from German businesses and research institutions meets with the government at the Federal Chancellery.

acatech Horizons

In 2018, the Academy launched the acatech HORIZONS series, a new publication format primarily aimed at providing advice for members of parliament and decision-makers in the private sector and civil society. These twice-yearly publications will provide a concise overview of technology fields that are quite literally looming large on the horizon.