Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg is one of the stars of German research: His work created the foundation for the development of the MP3 standard, one of the greatest high-tech success stories of recent years. The director of the Fraunhofer Institute in Ilmenau is an Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. Professor Brandenburg supervises some 20 PhD students, one of which is Hanna Lukashevich from Belarus.

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Professor Brandenburg, do you believe the Germans are especially innovative?

I continue to believe they are. It's not that there's no need for improvement, but overall things work quite well here when it comes to the way learning is organized, to role models. Entrepreneurial thinking may be more prevalent in the United States, but in Germany the prevailing idea is that you have to achieve something together; the team spirit is more pronounced. That's also why I constantly emphasize that I did not work alone on the MP3 project.

What are the prerequisites for innovation?

Knowledge, hard work and methodology are the prerequisites. But I also tell my students that it's important not to be a blinkered specialist.

Why?

Because new things often happen at interfaces. It's important to not only concentrate on one thing if you want to be able to move forward in your thinking and not get stuck in the same old rut. That's also how creativity develops, how innovation can unfold. That's important in terms of the people involved. When it comes to the organization, however, I also need a supportive environment. And that's the case at Fraunhofer.

Source: Federal Foreign Office/German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)