DIDACTICAL CONCEPT OF IFS

Dear participants of IfS,

Only 45 days until we are going to meet in Nürtingen! That means it is time to give you some further information about our program in this email to facilitate your preparation for the tour. Please, read this letter carefully. It contains some organizational information as well as information about the set‐ up of IfS. It will let you know about the scientific work load you will have to deliver during and after the tour for achieving the credits, and information about the didactical concept. Finally, it contains important organizational and practical information, like a “to do list” and a packaging list. We hope, that most questions you have regarding IfS will be answered. Don’t hesitate to ask any further questions, we will answer them as soon as possible.

ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

In order to be able to pick you up from your port of arrival please let us know when and where exactly you will be arriving in the Nürtingen/ Stuttgart area as soon as possible. Although Ms. Friege will be out‐of‐office as of tomorrow, she will read and answer her emails on a regular basis (so please disregard the automatic out‐of‐office responses you will receive).

WHAT IS THE DIDACTICAL CONCEPT OF IFS?

IfS takes the concept of research‐led learning. In research‐led learning the student is an active participant in the process of learning and research. We will experience the excitement of research and learn new things at the same time. “Regardless of its specific nature, a research project involves a process of framing questions, using reliable methods to find answers, and then weighing the relevance

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of the answers and the significance of the questions.“ (Clark 1997, 251). Research‐led learning encourages students to pursue new knowledge and to develop the independence of thought, critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills and ability to handle uncertainty and new problems – personal and professional skills that are integral to the graduate ‐ level jobs that develop our knowledge economy. This means that, besides extending our knowledge about the role and availability of innovations, we will train our competences of critical and independent enquiry. One could say that research based learning itself will help to contribute to sustain our countries’ intellectual and creative capital.

HOW DOES THE TOUR CHARACTER AND THE CONCEPT OF RESEARCH‐LED LEARNING RELATE TO EACH OTHER?

During the tour we will be able to collect valuable evidence for our research. It will allow us to get an insight into the field of where innovations and sustainability overlap. This will allow us to sketch and fine‐tune the scope of the research we want to do and it will deliver important empirical facts. It will allow us to discuss with renowned experts and practitioners in the field.

HOW WILL WE WORK TOGETHER?

IfS is organized and conducted in a multinational and multidisciplinary way. We will visit all firms and learn from the lectures all together in the big IfS tour group. The research and the paper writing will be done in smaller, mixed research teams, that will each consist of two students from different countries. We will build those groups in the beginning of the two tour weeks. Our research tour will benefit from feed‐back from the experts, spillovers between the research teams and discussions within the IfS tour group. NGU, the university, is setting up a secured electronic platform, where we will share material. You will get access to this electronic platform in due time and receive further emails announcing the availability of new material that will allow you to prepare for the visits and the lectures.

WHAT KIND OF WORK WILL WE HAVE TO DELIVER FOR ACHIEVING THE CREDITS? The milestones you will have to deliver consist of

1. an individual kick‐off presentation at the beginning (pass/fail),

2. a collection of research questions,

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3. a contribution to the tour journal,

4. a final poster presentation (held by each small IfS research team),

5. and a written paper (authored by each small IfS research team).

KICK OFF PRESENTATION ‐ In the beginning of our two tour weeks we will get to know each other. Each participant

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