Institute News

In his research paper “Access to the Frontier: Open Source AI and Downstream Innovation” Dominik Asam studies the impact of openly available frontier AI models on innovation dynamics in downstream markets.

His paper examines the downstream innovation impact of the (accidental?) leak of Meta’s Llama model on model creation on Hugging Face. After the leak, new developers entered the “market”, enhancing competition, whereas incumbent developers moved to domains where their expertise remained a source of differentiation. The study illustrates competitive reactions to the entry of new developers and highlights the welfare loss of keeping frontier models private and closed.

The jury particularly commended the interesting and highly relevant novel context, as well as the strong empirical identification setup based on the unexpected leak of the Llama model. The jury further emphasized that the overall question is highly important – namely, the dynamic welfare implications of closed versus open foundation models. The paper was praised for being interesting, well-written, and well-researched.

The DRUID Best Young Scholar Paper Award is dedicated to Steven Klepper, a professor of economics and social sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, who passed away far too soon in May 2013. An internationally recognized scholar, Klepper made fundamental contributions to the study of entrepreneurship, innovation, and industrial evolution.

Since 1995, DRUID has been a hub for premier research on innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional and geographic change. The conference originated from the Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics and was founded by scholars from Copenhagen Business School and Aalborg University. It has grown into one of the world’s leading platforms for exchange among researchers in innovation studies, management, economics, and entrepreneurship. Held annually at rotating international locations, DRUID brings together both established and early-career scholars. Recent editions have taken place in Toronto, Nice, Lisbon, and Copenhagen.

Jointly organized by Stefan Bechtold (ETH Zurich), Dietmar Harhoff (MPI and LMU Munich), Joachim Henkel and Hanna Hottenrott (both TU Munich), Tobias Kretschmer and Daniel Obermeier (both LMU Munich), Christian Peukert (HEC Lausanne), and Imke Reimers (Northeastern University), the MSI 2026 featured an ambitious program: a Ph.D. workshop, 24 paper presentations with dedicated discussants, 17 poster slams across two sessions, two keynote lectures, and ample opportunities for informal exchange throughout a welcome reception, a Bavarian conference dinner, and guided city walks through Munich.

A Platform for Emerging Scholars

The MSI Ph.D. Workshop, held on 20 May 2026 ahead of the main conference, has become a well-established tradition, with this year marking its fifth edition. This year’s workshop brought together doctoral researchers working on artificial intelligence, digital platforms, digitalization, innovation, and human capital. Participants presented ongoing work and received detailed feedback from junior faculty and peers alike.

Among the contributors from the Munich research community, Denzel Glandel Tafur (ISTO, LMU School of Management) presented his dissertation project “Social Evaluation of AI-Disclosed Content in a User-Generated Media Commons”, with discussion from Marina Chugunova (MPI). The workshop’s Best Paper Award went to Katarzyna Swiech (Georgia Institute of Technology) for her solo-authored paper “A Tale of Two Zones: The Impact of Time Zones on Collaboration and Knowledge Flow” — a well-deserved recognition of an impressive piece of independent scholarship. The paper examines United States Patent and Trademark Office data on within-state pairs of co-patenting cities – some in the same time zone, some split – to show that even a minimal temporal distance can meaningfully influence inter-regional collaborations. The paper was discussed by Jordan Bisset (MPI).

This year’s Ph.D. workshop was organized by Daehyun Kim (lead), Dominik Asam, and Johannes Könemann (all MPI), together with Chengdi Fa and Svenja Friess (both ISTO).

Three Days of Research at the Frontier

The main conference opened with a session on digital platforms, ecosystems, and market power – a fitting start for a conference whose themes are highly topical. The following days covered a wide arc of contemporary questions: AI and digital knowledge production, decision-making and reputation in digital settings, venture capital and innovation finance, and the law and economics of intellectual property.

Researchers from the Munich community were again strongly represented throughout. Jonathan Jensen and Alexey Rusakov (ISTO Alumni) presented work derived from Alexey’s dissertation: “The Dynamic Returns to Generative AI on Knowledge Breadth vs. Depth: Evidence from GitHub”, discussed by .Karin Hoisl (Affiliated Research Fellow at the MPI and University of Mannheim). Frederike Eulitz (ISTO) served as a discussant in the afternoon session on digital labor markets, drawing on her dissertation research. Manfredi Aliberti (incoming MPI Senior Research Fellow) presented “Beyond the Lab: The Effect of Ph.D. Programs on Innovation”, and Michael E. Rose (MPI Senior Research Fellow) contributed a poster on “Better Science as a Byproduct: The Institutional Revolution in the German Empire”. Elisabeth Hofmeister (MPI Junior Research Fellow) co-authored a paper presented in the closing law and economics session on “Commercial Regulation and the Production of Science: Evidence from New Genomic Techniques in Agricultural Biotechnology”.

Two Keynotes on Big Questions

The conference featured two standout keynote lectures. Hong Luo (University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management) explored the intersections of safety, liability, and innovation. In her keynote, “Regulatory Innovation: Using Health Innovation Policy to Realign Health Care Economics with Today's Biomedical Innovation Ecosystem”, Ariel D. Stern (Hasso Plattner Institute and University of Potsdam) delivered a wide-ranging talk on regulatory innovation and health care economics, prompting rich discussion across disciplinary lines.

Looking Forward

With its combination of high-level research presentations, a genuinely supportive atmosphere, and strong local roots in Munich’s research community, the MSI continues to offer a uniquely valuable forum for scholars at all career stages. Reserachers with interests in innovation, digitalization, entrepreneurship, strategy, or intellectual property are strongly encouraged to consider applying or attending the conference when it returns in 2027. The date will be announced soon (see link below).

Svenja Friess & Myriam Rion

More information: https://www.munich-summer-institute.org/munich-summer-institute

For the ninth time now, the two-day event is organized by Ph.D. students and Postdocs of the Department Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research headed by Dietmar Harhoff to give young scholars the opportunity to present their work.

The RISE9 Workshop on 14/15 December 2026 aims at stimulating a rigorous in-depth discussion of a selected number of research papers by Ph.D. students and Junior Post-docs, providing feedback and connecting with peers from other research institutions.

Get the Call for Papers RISE9.

See RISE9 Workshop Website.

Germany has a robust research landscape, a high-performing industrial sector, and a highly skilled workforce. Nevertheless, the country often fails to translate technological innovations into marketable applications quickly enough – with noticeable consequences for competitiveness and value added. The transfer between research, development, and industrial scaling remains a key challenge for Germany as a business location. The Innovation Council is therefore calling for a reorientation of innovation policy: away from short-term thinking focused on legislative terms, and toward a long-term, evidence-based strategy.

Eight leading figures from science, business, and society will develop concrete recommendations for a more implementation-oriented innovation policy within the Innovation Council. While many debates take place at an abstract level, the Council consistently focuses on the practical realization of innovations. A decisive factor here is the technological, regulatory, and economic framework under which new solutions are actually put into practice. As an independent, interdisciplinary body, the Innovation Council contributes a technology-oriented perspective to the discourse on innovation policy.

5 Impulses for Germany as a Location for Innovation

In its impulses for Germany as a location for innovation, the Innovation Council calls for a holistic approach to the topic of innovation and its impact on Germany as a business location:

1. Establishishing a Long-Term Innovation Strategy
Innovation should not be viewed in terms of legislative cycles. Germany needs a fact-based, long-term strategy with clear priorities regarding key technologies, infrastructure, resources, and skilled workers.

2. Designing Regulation to Foster Innovation
Faster procedures, less bureaucracy, and greater trust are needed. Real-world testing grounds, experimental clauses, and the reduction of “gold-plating” should facilitate innovation – including through Germany playing a more active role at the EU level.

3. Strengthening Investment and Scaling
Key technologies require long-term investment and a willingness to take risks. The goal is not only to develop innovations but also to scale them up in Germany—by creating better conditions for companies, start-ups, and collaborations.

4. Reorienting Education and the Workforce
An innovation-oriented education and labor market system is essential. Lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling, and the systematic development of talent are crucial to reducing skills shortages.

5. Targeted Advancement of Key Technologies
Germany needs to regain a leading role in technologies such as AI, microelectronics, biotechnology, and robotics. This requires competitive framework conditions, sufficient energy, and consistent industrial implementation.

Dietmar Harhoff emphasizes: “We must now reshape our country and reform our institutions. We can succeed if we rediscover our enthusiasm for innovation and technology. If, like me, you observe start-ups, young people at universities, or apprentices in companies, and see how they use technology every day to improve people’s lives, it is impossible not to be optimistic. The best is yet to come. The Innovation Council can help usher in a new era of success for Germany and Europe – one built on a willingness to innovate and on entrepreneurship.”

The “Future of Germany 2050” initiative was launched by the Association of German Engineers (VDI). Since 2026, the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) has also been involved, particularly in the field of AI. In this way, the Innovation Council brings together the expertise of two major technical and scientific communities with a combined membership of over 160,000 individuals. Independent of individual business interests, the initiators are pooling their strengths to bring a clear, fact-based voice to the discourse on innovation policy.

Further Members of the Innovation Council are:

Prof. Dr. Lutz Eckstein (RWTH Aaachen and President of the VDI)
Prof. Dr. Veronika Grimm (Nuremberg Technical University and Member of the German Council of Economic Experts)
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kühling (University of Regensburg and Chair of the Monopolies Commission until 2024)
Dr. Anne Lamp (Founder and entrepreneur in the circular economy sector, traceless materials)
Dr. Melanie Maas-Brunner (Former member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer at BASF, member of the Senate of the Max Planck Society, and, starting in June 2026, President of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft)
Adrian Willig (Aerospace engineer and Director and Executive Board Member of the VDI)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Wolf (Aachen University of Applied Sciences and President of the German Informatics Society)

More information:

To the Innovation Council for Germany (in German)
To the initiative „Future Germany 2050“
To the VDI

More (in German) on the acatech website.

However, complex innovation processes, their determinants, and implications cannot be understood from a single disciplinary perspective. In 2013, a new department for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research was added to conduct broader analyses. Combining legal and economic perspectives allows us to better assess the effects of rules, institutions, and the implications of technological change, especially in an era shaped by digitalization and increasingly open and collaborative innovation models. Renamed the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in 2014, our Institute has contributed to a deeper understanding of how innovation and competition interact, how they are shaped by legal and economic frameworks, and how regulation impacts them.

Equally central to the Institute’s mission is promoting early-career researchers. Each year, scholars from around the world join the Institute to pursue doctoral and postdoctoral research, benefit from the infrastructure and library, and contribute to a vibrant global academic community. Initiatives such as the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) further connect research, teaching, and practice through international legal education.

Today, after 60 years of research, the Institute’s commitment remains unchanged: to conduct independent, foundational research and to provide insights that help to understand and shape the evolving nexus of innovation, competition, and regulation.

The Institute took the anniversary as an opportunity to revamp the Institute’s webpage.
Have a look: The Institute

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights and competition policy is complex, especially when viewed through the lens of innovation. At a high level, there is a broad consensus that IP and competition policy, each with its own instruments, share the objective of enhancing consumer welfare and promoting innovation and are, in this sense, complementary. In practice, however, the ‘if’ and ‘how’ innovation considerations (e.g., incentives, appropriability and diffusion) inform competition policy design and enforcement, particularly in IP-intensive cases, raise significant analytical and institutional challenges. Technological and societal developments are reshaping innovation processes, from cumulative and data-driven R&D to platform-based ecosystems, with corresponding shifts in how IP rights are deployed as strategic assets in the market. At the same time, differences in the treatment of IP rights under competition policy across jurisdictions can generate geopolitical frictions, given the central role of IP in international trade and the extra-territorial reach of competition rules. Against this background, the Munich Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation welcomes unpublished papers from lawyers and economists, both on cross-cutting and sector-specific IP and competition law issues. The selected contributions will be discussed in-depth during the two-day event, emphasising the societal impact of the research findings.
 

Full Call for Papers as PDF
 

Abstract submission

Annual Conference: Preparatory Meeting in Concepción
 

Preparatory meetings for the 2026 Annual Conference took place in Concepción, Chile, in November 2025. The team visited the Energy Center at the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC) and held talks on possible cooperation in the field of energy technologies and intellectual property. The Chilean university is considered an important partner for scientific exchange in Latin America.

Five Workshops in Bogotá
 

In Bogotá, Colombia, SIPLA organized during November 2025 five exploratory workshops to identify potential cooperation with local experts regarding new SIPLA research projects .

Upcycling and Circular Innovation
The workshop on upcycling and circular innovation highlighted the role of intellectual property in sustainable economic models. Participants discussed how innovations in the circular economy can be legally protected and promoted. A particular focus was placed on the question of how traditional property rights need to be adapted to new business models. The experts analyzed successful examples from the region and identified obstacles that hinder the creative reuse of materials.

Greenwashing
The topic of greenwashing was the focus of another workshop. Experts from the fields of law, business, and civil society analyzed misleading environmental claims and developed approaches for more effective regulation. The discussions showed that many Latin American countries do not yet have sufficient legal instruments to punish false sustainability claims. Participants developed proposals for transparency requirements and sanction mechanisms to better protect consumers.

Plastic and Microplastics
The legal challenges posed by plastic and microplastics were the focus of a third workshop. Discussions focused on regulatory gaps and possible solutions to this growing environmental problem. Particular attention was paid to the question of how liability rules can be designed to oblige manufacturers to take responsibility for their products. The experts looked at international examples and discussed which approaches could be transferred to Latin American contexts.

Hydrogen Technologies
A workshop on hydrogen technologies examined the tension between patent protection, regulation, and innovation. Participants discussed how Latin American countries can exploit their potential in this promising energy sector. A key question was whether strict patent rights inhibit technology diffusion or whether they create necessary investment incentives. The discussions also took into account government support strategies and the importance of technology transfer for the region. This workshop has served as a prelude to the upcoming Annual Conference in Concepción in 2026.

Biological Inputs
The final workshop focused on biological inputs in sustainable agriculture. Biological inputs include products such as biofertilizers, biostimulants, and soil improvers, as well as biological pesticides. Experts discussed regulatory frameworks, innovation incentives, and competition issues in the agricultural sector. One focus was on the approval of biological pesticides and fertilizers, which are often subject to lengthy procedures. Participants examined how regulation can be simplified without compromising safety standards. They also discussed smallholder farmers' access to innovative bio-inputs and possible support instruments.

About SIPLA
 

Smart IP for Latin America is a research initiative of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. It provides a neutral forum for academic and legal policy discourse on intellectual property and competition law in Latin America. The aim is to inform and advise academia, policymakers, business, and the general public on the basis of impartial and evidence-based fundamental research. The goal is to support the realization of Latin America's social, cultural, and economic potential.