Challenges that bring us together
The major challenges of our time cannot be tackled by individual organisations alone. They require people who share knowledge, bring different perspectives together and develop new solutions collaboratively.
Through its Annual Challenge, the Innovation Alliance Foundation creates a framework in which exchange gives rise to concrete collaboration. For one year, it brings together academia, business and the public sector to channel their innovative potential towards an urgent societal challenge. The aim is to strengthen cross-sector collaboration and create public value by promoting technology-based innovations.
Goals of the Annual Challenge
When different perspectives, skills and experiences come together to tackle a pressing societal challenge, this creates added value that goes beyond the interests of individual stakeholders.
The Annual Challenge creates the space for this collaboration: by bringing together different perspectives, a shared understanding of the challenge emerges, from which solutions can arise that have an impact on society as a whole.
Societal challenges are multifaceted and affect various areas simultaneously. The stakeholders working on potential solutions are equally diverse. They bring with them different perspectives, skills, experiences and avenues for action.
The Annual Challenge brings this diversity together in a targeted way and creates a shared framework in which the skills and needs of individual stakeholders complement one another. This reveals points of connection, fosters new collaborations and strengthens existing networks. Working together on a specific challenge thus strengthens, in the long term, the region’s ability to tackle future challenges collectively.
Promoting technology-based innovation is a key mission of the Freiburg Innovation Alliance Foundation.
Through the Annual Challenge, this mission is focused on specific societal challenges. Technological expertise from the region is thus matched with real-world needs and areas of application in society, science and business. This creates new applications for existing technologies, enables innovative approaches to be further developed, and accelerates the implementation of solutions.
The Annual Challenge views a year as a starting point for long-term impact. It places a socially relevant issue on the shared agenda, mobilises stakeholders and catalyses new developments. Ideas, collaborations and proposed solutions that emerge over the course of the year can then continue to develop and spur new activities in the region.
In this way, a shared focus becomes a catalyst whose impact extends beyond the year of the challenge.
The impact of the Annual Challenge extends beyond the course of the year itself. The collaborations forged, the solutions developed and the knowledge shared form the basis for further activities. Insights and results are integrated into existing structures, where they can be further developed and utilised.
In this way, the Annual Challenge creates the conditions for a joint innovation process to generate long-term benefits for the region.
The region’s capacity for innovation as a common starting point
Freiburg is one of Germany’s most dynamic centres of innovation: it ranks among the
top 10 locations for start-ups, and more than 11,000 companies and thousands of researchers work together here within a compact area. The close links between academia, industry and the start-up scene create ideal conditions for bringing new technologies into practice more quickly.
Added to this is its location in the Germany–France–Switzerland border triangle – one of Europe’s strongest innovation hubs, with around 15,000 researchers, 120 universities and research institutions, and an economic output of over 320 billion euros.
The region possesses enormous potential for innovation. New technologies, research projects and business ideas emerge every day. However, complex societal challenges can rarely be solved by individual actors acting alone. It is only through the collaboration of different areas of expertise that innovations can have an even greater impact.
The Annual Challenge provides the ideal framework for this: it brings together existing initiatives around a shared challenge and fosters new collaborations.
The innovation process behind the Annual Challenge
The annual challenge is based on the principles of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. At its heart is a structured innovation process that tackles complex challenges collaboratively, in an evidence-based manner and across sectors.
The starting point is a shared understanding of the challenge: what causes and interrelationships are at play? Which stakeholders possess relevant knowledge, data, technologies, access or implementation skills? Existing knowledge, relevant data and practical experience help to understand the challenge from various perspectives and to identify key areas for action.
Cross-sector collaboration is an essential part of this process. This is because different perspectives reveal different facets of a challenge – and knowledge, resources and options for action also vary. When these different approaches are combined, connections can become apparent that remain hidden within individual sectors, and new starting points for solutions can emerge.
Building on this, ideas are developed, assessed for their feasibility and potential added value, and further refined. Insights gained from the process are continuously incorporated into the next steps. In this way, the Annual Challenge progresses from a shared understanding, through specific areas for action, to potential solutions that can be further developed and put into practice.
More about the Bloomberg-Harvard Collaboration
The 2026–2027 Annual Challenge: MISSION: Future Healthcare
MISSION: Future Healthcare is the annual challenge set by the Freiburg Innovation Alliance Foundation for 2026–27. The central question is: How can innovative technologies and the intelligent use of health, environmental and care data strengthen healthcare provision in Freiburg in the long term?
Demographic change, a shortage of skilled workers and increasing peaks in demand are placing new demands on the healthcare system. At the same time, technologies, research projects and innovative approaches with great potential for prevention, care and alleviating the burden are emerging in Freiburg.
This is where the Annual Challenge comes in: it brings together existing projects, technological expertise, data and specific needs. The aim is to identify opportunities, jointly develop potential solutions and initiate new collaborations – for a sustainable healthcare system in Freiburg.
“The Annual Challenge is a powerful new initiative for Freiburg: it brings together people from the worlds of academia, business, healthcare and public administration to work together on the issues that will shape our city’s future. After all, Freiburg thrives on us sharing knowledge, joining forces and working together to bring good ideas for our city to fruition.”
Martin W. W. Horn Oberbürgermeister Stadt Freiburg
“Innovation means turning good ideas into successful applications. To this end, the Annual Challenge brings together technological expertise, real-world needs and business perspectives to create solutions with measurable added value.”
Prof. Dr. Karsten Buse Institutsleiter Fraunhofer IPM
FAQs
Complex challenges require a range of skills and perspectives. This one-year process creates the space to bring existing approaches together, tackle specific challenges collaboratively, and develop new partnerships and solutions as a result.
Ideas for future challenges can be drawn from the Freiburg innovation ecosystem. The topics are reviewed and further developed by the Foundation’s Advisory Board. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees decides on the challenge for each year.
Depending on the theme, the annual challenge brings together relevant stakeholders and expertise from academia, business, public administration and other sectors. The specific perspectives required are determined by the challenge at hand.
The annual challenge is a step-by-step process: first, a shared understanding of the challenge and its causes is established. Subsequently, existing activities and skills are brought together, specific areas for action are identified, and potential solutions are jointly developed and tested.
The methodological support provided depends on the specific challenge. For Mission Future Healthcare, the Innovationsallianz Foundation and BadenCampus support the innovation process using a structured approach based on the international Bloomberg Harvard method for mission-driven innovation.
The Annual Challenge helps projects tackle specific challenges more quickly and take the next step in their development. To this end, it brings together the relevant expertise, partners and access points from Freiburg’s innovation ecosystem – covering data, technologies, research, applications and infrastructure. At the same time, it creates new opportunities for collaboration and generates additional visibility for the participating projects.
The annual challenge starts by building on existing skills, projects and ideas. This can lead to new collaborations, joint solutions, pilot schemes or follow-up projects.
No, the Annual Challenge is not a traditional funding programme, and participation does not automatically entitle participants to financial support. The focus is on networking relevant expertise, the joint development of solutions, and access to partners, knowledge and infrastructure. Relevant funding programmes and financing options can be explored together, and suitable partners can be brought together to submit a joint application.
Yes. If specific project ideas and collaborations emerge during the course of the annual challenge, suitable funding opportunities can be identified and assessed jointly.
Successful approaches and collaborations are intended to have a lasting impact beyond the Challenge. Findings from the process will also be compiled for the innovation ecosystem and may be incorporated into the Innovation Alliance’s future activities.
Your contact person
Alessandra Milano
Officer, Freiburg Innovation Alliance Foundation; Head
of Communications, Käpsele Innovation Festival