A.SPIRE Community Day

10 Apr 2025 | Brussels, Belgium

Antonius Schröder

Member of Management Board Social Research Centre

TU Dortmund University

Dortmund, Germany

1 profile visitA.SPIRE Member

Looking forward to plan technological innovation within a social innovation process, focusing on pro-active skills adjustment and human-centricity

My organisation

The Technische Universität Dortmund (TUDO), Germany, is a university located in the city of Dortmund. It was founded in 1968 as a part of a government initiative to establish universities in the traditionally working-class Ruhr area. The Social Research Center (sfs) is carrying out the project work as a part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at TUDO. Is has been a part of the university since 2007, but already been founded in 1946. The overarching guiding theme of the sfs' research work is social science innovation research. It examines how social innovations arise and how they relate to technological innovations. Another focus is on the question of the conditions and perspectives for realising economically, ecologically and socially sustainable development. The sfs is involved in shaping social, technological and ecological processes of change and innovation. The research team engaged in this project is dedicated to the combination of social innovation and technological innovation, promoting a deep participatory approach with end-users and other relevant stakeholders to facilitate a joint optimisation of technology, people and organisation as dimensions of a sociotechnical system. Additionally, they address human-related challenges in the context of digital and green transformation, especially with regard to collaboration on sector-specific EU-wide skills strategies (ESSA, SPIRE-SAIS, Skills4EII).
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About me

Antonius Schröder is senior researcher and member of management board of sfs (Social Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences at the TU University Dortmund), responsible for international research. His focus is on Social Innovation (esp. combining technological and social innovation) and Vocational Education and Training. He has worked in and managed more than 30 European projects, recently co-ordinating three large scale EU Erasmus+ funded sectoral European Skills Alliances (ESSA www.estep.eu/essa and SPIRE-SAIS www.spire2030/sais), Skills4EII, and the Large Scale Partnership Energy Intensive Industries under the Pact for Skills. He is Managing Director of the European School of Social Innovation ESSI, Chairman of the Focus Group People within the European Steel Technology Platform ESTEP, Leader of the Permanent Working Group “Societal Innovation” of the Advisory and Programming Group for Processes for Planet and Chair of the Senate of the German Professional Association of Social Scientists (BSiD).