Focus area

Social innovation

Technology creates impact when people shape it. Participation, education and empowerment are central, from co-creation with urban society to the maker space where young people build technology themselves.

Core idea

What social innovation means

Social innovation does not begin with technology, but with people. Three principles carry the work of Innovation Tank: participation creates acceptance, education creates competence, empowerment creates impact.

Participation

Urban society, administration and business shape solutions together. Citizen participation makes decisions traceable and ensures that technology meets the actual needs of people.

Education

STEM education gives young people practical access to science and technology. Problem-based learning on real tasks connects curiosity with sound understanding.

Empowerment

Those who can build technology themselves actively shape their own environment. Empowerment means providing the tools, spaces and methods that turn ideas into viable projects.

Co-creation

Co-creation with urban society

Livable cities emerge through the interplay of many perspectives. Co-creation brings administration, research and local business to one table, to define challenges together and develop solutions together.

Participation does not remain symbolic in the process. Those who help shape, shape with impact: from the definition of the problem through testing to the evaluation of the results. This builds trust in data-driven urban development, and Innovation Tank connects the methodology, in a scientifically grounded way, with municipal practice.

All focus areas

Shared problem definition
Needs are identified with those affected, not over their heads.
Open testing
Solutions are tested in the real environment and improved step by step.
Scientific evaluation
Impact is evaluated according to scientific standards.
Privacy by design
Data protection is structurally anchored in every step, not retrofitted.

Education and STEM

Future Lab STEM

An extracurricular learning place in Heidelberg's Emmertsgrund, where young people experience science and technology in a practical way.

At the Future Lab STEM, problem-based learning takes centre stage. Instead of abstract theory, children and young people work on real questions, develop their own solutions and experience how curiosity turns into sound understanding. The learning place is accessible with a low threshold and opens educational opportunities regardless of background.

As an extracurricular learning place, the Future Lab STEM complements school education and creates a space where experimentation is expressly welcome. In this way, the educational mission of social innovation connects with the aspiration to inspire young people for technology and research in the long term.

View all projects zukunftslabor-mint.de

At a glance

Format
Extracurricular learning place
Methodology
Problem-based learning
Location
Emmertsgrund, Heidelberg

Maker space

Building technology yourself

The maker space is the place where empowerment becomes concrete. Young people do not only develop technology, they understand it and build it themselves. Working prototypes emerge from sensors, code and their own ideas.

This practical experience fundamentally changes the relationship to technology. Those who assemble a system themselves recognise its possibilities and its limits. This turns passive consumption into active creation, and young people become co-creators of the digital city.

From prototype to attitude

In the maker space, technical skill and social responsibility come together. Young people learn to use technology consciously and with the common good in mind.

A look inside the maker space

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