Prof. Christian Ramsauer is the head of the Institute of Innovation and Industrial Management, an institute of the faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Economic Sciences at Graz University of Technology. It is organized in two working groups and operates the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation, the LEAD Factory and the IIM Seminar Room to support teaching and research in the best possible way.

Research and teaching focuses on topics related to the product creation process. The four main areas are Agility, Digitalization, Product Design and Maker Movement.

Contract research
Projects of half a year up to three years involving Master or PhD students.

Makerthon
Within the scope of a Makerthon (Maker+Marathon), interdisciplinary teams face the challenge of finding solutions for real industrial problems within 48 hours.

Experthon
We support companies in dealing with current issues through an interdisciplinary team of four university assistants from relevant institutes at Graz University of Technology.

Partner in innovation courses
In the course of our Product Innovation Project, interdisciplinary student teams develop product concepts, working prototypes and business plans for the tasks of an industrial partner taking up to a full academic year.

Exclusive partnership
Our partners have privileged access to our offerings focusing on innovation. This also includes the access to the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation.

Case study
In order to be more present for our students, we offer companies to develop a case study which can be taught in one of our courses.

Executive education
For companies, courses based on Participant Centered Learning are offered on various topics such as Value Engineering, Idea Creation or Lean Management.

Use of the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation
The Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation can be booked by startups, SMEs as well as large enterprises as a rapid prototyping facility, for small batch size production or as event location.

Use of the LEAD Factory
The institute provides half-day up to three-day trainings in the LEAD Factory on the topics lean, energy efficiency, agile operations and digitalization.

Use of the IIM Seminar Room
The IIM Seminar Room, designed and constructed in the design of a Harvard Business School case study room, can be rented for workshops, meetings, video conferences, etc.

Guest speaker
We offer you the opportunity to make a contribution to teaching based on your experience and expertise on specific topics and thus, to make direct contact with the students.

Sponsorship
You can make your products available to be used by our students and representatives of other companies in the Schumpeter Laboratory for Innovation or the Lead Factory.

Consulting projects
We offer consulting for projects ranging from the first idea generation up to the SOP of a new product. Examples of finished projects are layout planning projects, the development of a new production line for series production, value analysis projects for new or established products, energy efficiency projects, use of new technologies, business model innovation through digitalization and more.