Developments at acatech

Organisational structure

In September 2024, acatech made some important changes to its organisational structure. These were necessary to allow the Academy to expand its practical transfer project activities. After an incubation stage within the Academy, these projects will now move to the acatech Stiftung, which operates as a separate legal entity. The aim is to draw a clearer organisational line between the Academy’s scientific advice role and the transfer initiatives. A coordinating committee will coordinate the activities of the Academy, the acatech Stiftung and the Friends Association (Förderverein). acatech’s former Managing Director, Manfred Rauhmeier, will take on the liaison role of secretary of the coordinating committee. acatech’s former administrative manager, Wolfgang Siegel, takes over as the Academy’s Chief Administrative Officer.

In 2024, acatech changed the topic-based structure that previously provided the framework for the Academy’s scientific work into a programme structure. The six programmes are as follows:

• Transformation of the business location
• Digital transformation
• Energy and resources
• Life sciences and health
• Framework for innovation
• Mobility and logistics

Members

acatech’s Members are invited to join the Academy on the basis of their outstanding scientific achievements. acatech elected 25 new members at its annual General Assembly in October 2024, further strengthening its capacity for providing science-based advice. All 25 newly elected Members were delighted to accept their appointment and are already voluntarily contributing their scientific expertise to support acatech’s mission of providing independent advice that is in the public interest to policymakers and the general public. The Academy’s scientists come from the fields of engineering, the applied sciences, the humanities, economics and the social sciences. The newly elected scientists bring the total number of acatech Members up to 682.

acatech fulfils its mandate to provide independent advice that is in the public interest to policymakers and the general public by recruiting outstanding, dedicated scientists to engage in the growing number of interdisciplinary initiatives. I am delighted to welcome the new Members and am really looking forward to seeing the results of the Academy’s projects, topic networks and working groups.

acatech President Jan Wörner

At their annual meeting, the Members set the direction of acatech’s future development and the themes of the Academy’s work. The discussions focused on interdisciplinary collaboration and acatech’s organisational development, while recently elected Members had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their research. Another highlight of the event was the keynote speech given by the physicist Christine Silberhorn. A professor and spokesperson of the Institute of Photonic Quantum Systems at Paderborn University, she was elected a Member of acatech in October 2023. Her speech traced the development of the quantum world, from Max Planck and Albert Einstein, who ushered in a new era in physics at the start of the 20^th century, through the invention of the laser in 1960 and right up to the challenges currently facing modern quantum technology.

Senate

acatech’s Senate forms the second pillar of the Academy, alongside the Members. The Senate is made up of leading figures from technology companies, industry associations and the major science organisations. The members of the Senate advise the Academy on strategic issues and complement its scientific expertise with practical, business-focused perspectives.

In June 2024, the Senate members came together for their annual meeting in Munich, which was hosted by the IBM Watson Center. The meeting’s theme was “Shaping the digital transformation by leveraging the innovation potential of intelligent systems”*. Senate chair and acatech President Thomas Weber welcomed nine new Senate members comprising companies from the mechanical engineering, healthcare, chemical and business consulting sectors.

The main topics of discussion at the Senate’s annual meeting included the use of AI to support competitiveness and value creation, quantum computing’s future as the next disruptive innovation, and the “Mission KI” artificial intelligence initiative. The participants in the event were given an interesting insight into how knowledge in these areas can be transferred from theory to practice in the IBM Innovation Studio. The acatech Senate comprised 109 members as of 31 December 2024.

Executive Board and Management Board

The Executive Board is responsible for directing the Academy’s scientific activities. Together with the Chief Administrative Officer, its 18 members represent acatech’s twin science and industry pillars. Twelve of the Executive Board’s members are elected from the General Assembly and six from the acatech Senate. Jan Wörner has served as the scientific President, while Thomas Weber was elected as the President representing the industry side. The Vice-Presidents are Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Ursula Gather, Stefan Oschmann and Christoph M. Schmidt. acatech’s Management Board consists of the two presidents and the Chief Administrative Officer.

Board of Trustees

The acatech Board of Trustees* comprises prominent figures from science, industry, government and civil society. Chaired by Henning Kagermann, it primarily helps the Management Board to determine the Academy’s strategic direction. The Board of Trustees meets every six months and had 21 members in 2024.

acatech offices

The acatech office in Munich is the Academy’s headquarters and home to the Academy’s senior management and the majority of its staff. acatech also has a Berlin office and an office in Brussels that coordinates the Academy’s networking activities at EU level. In 2024, a total of 216 people were employed at acatech’s offices, approximately 60 percent of whom were women. Over the course of the year, the Academy was also supported by 40 student assistants.

Schnieder-Preis JUNGE MACHERIN 2024

acatech established the Schnieder-Preis JUNGE MACHERIN in order to support female talents in the technological sciences and encourage them to advance their careers. The €3,000 prize is open to female science and engineering graduates who produced outstanding research during their studies. Candidates are nominated by acatech Members.

The 2024 Schnieder-Preis JUNGE MACHERIN was awarded to Anja Preitschaft. The judges were impressed by her outstanding Master’s thesis on AI-powered situation recognition in commercial vehicles, as well as her impressive academic record and voluntary work. The jury chaired by acatech President Jan Wörner awarded her the prize in the company of her academic and corporate supervisors in a ceremony at MAN Truck & Bus SE in Munich, where she wrote her Master’s thesis. The thesis addresses the potential for AI-powered situation recognition in commercial vehicles. It proposes that trucks could use vehicle data to automatically recognise whether they are travelling on a motorway or being loaded, unloaded, or parked, for example. In the future, this would make it possible to automatically activate the relevant onboard assistance systems. The AI model developed and trained by Preitschaft achieves almost 95 percent accuracy in recognising different driving situations.

The Schnieder-Preis Junge Macherin was awarded at a ceremony at MAN on 22.10.2024 attended by (right to left) acatech President Jan Wörner, Antonio Schnieder, prize-winner Anja Preitschaft, Katharina Schnieder, Hans-Peter Berlien and Veronika Harsandi. © MAN

Katharina Schnieder watches on as Antonio Schnieder presents the trophy and certificate to prize-winner Anja Preitschaft. © MAN

The two other outstanding graduates shortlisted by the judges were Lisa Mette and Patricia Kaiser. Patricia Kaiser’s dissertation investigated 3D printing, while Lisa Mette’s Master’s theses addressed two separate challenges: the development of safe autonomous vehicles (EIT Master’s thesis) and the development of responsible social media (RESET Master’s thesis).

Finances

acatech is a non-profit organisation. One third of its institutional funding comes from the Federal Government, while the remaining two thirds comes from the State of Bavaria, where it has its headquarters (€1.25 million from the Federal Government, €2.5 million from the State of Bavaria). This is supplemented by public and private project funding.

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