Hi, I’m Niklas. I’m a research associate at Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart, working in the Urban Systems Engineering department. Most of my work is about cities, sustainability and the question of how the two may fit together.
A lot of that work happens inside large European research projects. Right now I coordinate the replication and scaling work package in URBREATH, which is about nature-based solutions for climate resilience across different European cities. Before that I worked on positive energy districts in SPARCS, and on the societal side of carbon capture in ACCSESS. The overarching idea is the concept of “replication” and on how something that works in one city or context, may be adapted to work in another.
Recently I’ve been spending time on the idea of the Citiverse and on city-scale virtual environments that try to bring together different digital technologies and data sources, such as digital twins, simulations or immersive interfaces. You may read more about about this on the dedicated Citiverse project page.
I also keep coming back to the topic of the night. Cities run around the clock, but planning and development predominantly account for the daytime. I think, that this gap could matter more than one would usually assume. I wrote a comment for Nature Cities titled “My City Never Sleeps”, and have talked about the topic on several conferences. You may find more on the topic in my blog here and here.
On a more independent track, I’ve been working with Amazonia 4.0 and FGV on the Amazonia City Lab Initiative, which tries to adapt Fraunhofer’s Morgenstadt City Lab approach for small towns in the Brazilian Amazon. It’s still only a proposal, yet working on this was very rewarding for me. Please have a look the dedicated project page if you’d like to read more.
I studied Bioeconomy at the University of Hohenheim and wrote my master thesis on The Governance of Nature-based Solutions. Over time, I moved from the natural sciences toward social sciences and interdisciplinary research. You may read more about this transition in this post.
If you find any of those topics interesting, I’d be glad to hear from you and to get in touch.
Talks & Media
- Better Transformation Summit, Heilbronn (2025): Modetator and Host
- Futuromundo Congress, Stuttgart (2025): Moderator, Future Urban Economies Forum
- Fraunhofer Summer Camp (2025): Track Leader and Coach, Makeathon. Coached the winning team in creating an AI-driven tool for nighttime urban walkability and perceived pedestrian safety. See Link.
- UN World Urban Forum (WUF12), Cairo (2024): Panelist, “24-Hour Cities Against Climate Change”
- ENCHURE M.Sc. (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau) visit at the Dept. of Urban Systems Engineering (2025): Seminar and Lecture, “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Cities”
- SXSW Austin (2024): “Sustainability Nighttime Lab”: Panelist
- Stuttgarter Wissenschaftsfestival (2024): Presentation “Stuttgart als Morgenstadt,” Wissenschaftsfestival
- Smart City Expo World Congress, Barcelona (2022-2023): EU Replication and Scaling session, SCWC Barcelona
Video, Radio & TV
- Maeil Business TV Special: “Building the City of Tomorrow” (2024, from min. 18)
- SPARCS City Forum, Maia, Portugal (2024)
- URBREATH: Nature-Based Solutions across EU climatic zones (2024)
- Deutschlandfunk Kultur: “Mit neuer Energie für die Stadt von Morgen” (2022)
- Nature-Based Solutions, invited talk at American University of Armenia (2019)
Publications
- Effenberger, N. (2025): “My city never sleeps.” Nature Cities. DOI: 10.1038/s44284-025-00244-8
- Fatima, Z.;(…) Effenberger, N.; et al. (2023): “Positive Energy Districts: The 10 Replicated Solutions in Maia, Reykjavik, Kifissia, Kladno and Lviv.” Smart Cities 6(1). DOI: 10.3390/smartcities6010001
- Feldwieser, M.;(…) Effenberger, N.; et al. (2023): “Die Cloud als zentrales Werkzeug der kommunalen Digitalisierung.” Fraunhofer IAO Trendletter. DOI: 10.24406/PUBLICA-1001
- Effenberger, N. et al. (2024): “Positive Energy Districts in Project SPARCS: Replication Summary Report for EU-27.” SPARCS Deliverable D5.1
- Sponagel, C.;(…) Effenberger, N.; et al. (2020): “Perspektiven und Status quo der Eingriffsregelung im Kontext der Landwirtschaft.” Berichte über Landwirtschaft 98(2). DOI: 10.26084/12DFNS-P008
- Effenberger, N. (2018): “Which Governance Aspects Promote and Inhibit the Uptake of Nature-Based Solutions in Cities?” Master’s Thesis, University of Hohenheim. PDF
Beyond Work
I like taking photos (Unsplash), used to play music as dj effekt and now and then, I like to craft things with my hands, see e.g. here or here on my site. I once ended up in an e-bike commercial and I put together Crab Couture, an idea for a sustainable fashion label made with gen-AI.
More of these live in the Creative section.
Get in Touch
- Email: niklas.effenberger@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/niklaseffenberger
- Website: nikefn.github.io