Understanding change - shaping the future

The dynamics of economic development and its dependence on global interactions are growing faster than ever before. This makes forecasting the future particularly difficult. Nevertheless, a look at long-term trends offers an opportunity to open the discussion about what reality might await us tomorrow and how we intend to deal with it. From the point of view of the member institutes of the Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research, this paper presents a selection of trends that will have a significant impact on innovation systems in the period up to 2030. On this basis, theses for innovation in the year 2030 are derived providing the baseline for discussions on the requirements to ensure future competitiveness.