Liza Wohlfart

Liza Wohlfart is a senior scientist at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and head of the Center for Frugal Products and Manufacturing Systems. With over 15 years researching frugal innovations, she focuses on simple, affordable, and sustainable solutions. Her work also includes strategic foresight, behavioral science in innovation, and agile methods like Design Thinking and Lean Startup.

Breaking the Wall to Frugal Citizen Innovation: Liza Wohlfart's 2025 Falling Walls Engage Finalist Project is FRANCIS.

The EU-funded FRANCIS project empowers citizens worldwide to co-create simple, affordable, and sustainable innovations (hence 'frugal') via an Open Innovation platform and dedicated toolkit. Focusing on underrepresented groups across India, Germany, Turkey, and Colombia, FRANCIS offers expert mentoring and aligns with SDGs to foster inclusive, impactful solutions linking Citizen Science and frugal innovation for real community needs.