MTUWerte

MTUWerte is a collaborative research initiative organized by MTU and partner institutions to study, quantify, and promote value-oriented approaches in technology development and deployment. The program aims to integrate quantitative metrics of value—economic, environmental, social, and ethical—into engineering practice, policy analysis, and education.

Launched in the early 2010s after a national funding opportunity, MTUWerte grew from a cross-disciplinary team into a multi-institution consortium. It brings together engineers, social scientists, industry partners, and public-sector collaborators to address the gap between technical performance and real-world impact. The initiative seeks to align research agendas with societal needs and to provide actionable tools for decision makers.

Governance is shared among a steering committee, research cores focused on measurement frameworks and ethics, and an outreach and education unit. Core activities include developing Wert Metrics, a framework for evaluating value across product lifecycles; conducting pilot projects in areas such as energy systems, manufacturing, and digital services; and offering graduate courses, workshops, and internships. An open data portal and a series of annual reports help disseminate methods and findings to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

Impact and reception of MTUWerte are characterized by adoption of its metrics and guidelines by partner universities and some municipal bodies for procurement and design decisions. The program contributes to policy discussions on responsible innovation and sustainable engineering, while also facing critiques related to data transparency, metric standardization, and the generalizability of Wert Metrics across industries.