About

MINDS & SPARKS GmbH is an independent non-profit research and innovation organisation based in Vienna Austria. It focuses on fostering science, innovation, and technology to address major challenges and to develop new methods and solutions for a better society. MINDS & SPARKS creates strong connections between science, technology and society using interdisciplinary approaches, promoting best practices and raising awareness on research and innovation achievements.

For funded projects MINDS & SPARKS is providing established approaches and capabilities in the field of requirements engineering, use case specification, information visualisation, interface design, application testing, and user validation. Furthermore, the organisation focuses on improving the sustainability of research and innovation outcomes especially of public-funded projects to ensure that spent resources lead to enduring positive impacts for the society as a whole. MINDS & SPARKS is formed by a team of highly skilled personnel which holds many years of experience in designing, leading and implementing research and advisory projects.

The organisation is connected to various research and innovation networks including international research organisations, academic institutions, civil societies, NGOs, governments, municipalities, technology providers and industries in various sectors including health, security, energy, and transport.

Key Pillars

Safety and Security

Being a complex theme, safety and security needs to be taken into consideration in the milieu of various issues, such as natural disasters, major events, protest movements, emergencies, and the protection of citizens from potential terrorist attacks or petty crimes. At MINDS & SPARKS, security research combines both, the social research and the technological implementation of innovative solutions.

Social Science and RRI

The MINDS & SPARKS team members have broad experience in conducting applied social science research. As different topics require different methods of social science research, MINDS & SPARKS has therefore established an interdisciplinary team to cover these issues with a variety of methodological approaches. Due to the long-term experience in applied research and solution development, the team has also profound knowledge on RRI principles and measures and applies them in its research and innovation activities.

Future Modern Technologies

MINDS & SPARKS’ research engineers and software developers have extensive experience in supporting the delivery and uptake of outstanding web and mobile applications, collaborative platforms, open information hubs and decision support solutions to tackle emerging societal challenges and to support different stakeholders including public bodies and private citizens.

Innovation in Education

Our team has a track record in research and development of formal and informal education processes, developing novel concepts to actively integrate young boys and girls in STEM and STEAM education, but also working together with higher education institutions to include RRI principles and measures in their curricula and increasing their academic ranking.