Transformation Investment Compass

Tracking Corporate Investments in Strategic Transition

The Transformation Investment Compass is a new research tool by the Centre for European Transformation (CfET) – currently in prototype and under active development. Starting with Germany and expanding to core European economies in 2026, it tracks where transformation capital is flowing and where it is not.

First results will be presented at our Annual Conference on 12 March 2026. Slides and high-level results will be shared here after the conference. Read our press release for more.

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The problem we address

Europe faces an investment challenge of historic proportions. The Draghi Report (2024) estimates that closing Europe’s green, digital, and strategic gaps requires EUR 750–800 billion in additional annual investment per year. Yet there is no systematic, real-time measure of whether firms are actually responding. The Transformation Investment Compass fills this gap.

What the Compass does

The Compass is a project-level, firm-resolved dataset of transformation investment announcements by large and very large German non-financial corporations, covering 2017–2025. It tracks announced investment commitments across four strategic themes: sustainability, digitalisation, technology modernisation, and capacity expansion. The current release covers approximately 1,900 projects from 417 firms. Expansion to core European economies is planned for 2026.

The Compass differs from standard corporate capex data in three respects.

It is project-level rather than aggregate: each observation is a specific announced investment with a disclosed or estimated amount, transformation classification, and source.
It is forward-looking: announced investments reflect management decisions that typically precede actual capital expenditure by one to three years.
It covers the full transformation taxonomy, including sustainability and digitalisation investments that are typically embedded in or excluded from reported capex figures.

Who it’s for

The Compass is designed for institutional investors, policymakers, and capital allocators who need a forward-looking, firm-level view of where transformation capital is flowing — and where it is not. It supports sector screening, firm-level benchmarking, and real-time monitoring of investment sentiment — ahead of reported capex data.

Research & Project Team

Sascha Steffen

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Eckart Windhagen

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Eric Offner

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Titose Chembezi

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Prototype & active development

The Transformation Investment Compass is currently a prototype under active development. Coverage will expand to core European economies in 2026, and methodology and data will continue to evolve.

We welcome feedback from early users and interested stakeholders.

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