  We have calculated cross sections and branching ratios for neutrino induced
reactions on ^{208}Pb and ^{56}Fe for various supernova and
accelerator-relevant neutrino spectra. This was motivated by the facts that
lead and iron will be used on one hand as target materials in future neutrino
detectors, on the other hand have been and are still used as shielding
materials in accelerator-based experiments. In particular we study the
inclusive ^{56}$Fe(\nu_e,e^-)$^{56}Co and ^{208}$Pb(\nu_e,e^-)$^{208}Bi cross
sections and calculate the neutron energy spectra following the decay of the
daughter nuclei. These reactions give a potential background signal in the
KARMEN and LSND experiment and are discussed as a detection scheme for
supernova neutrinos in the proposed OMNIS and LAND detectors. We also study the
neutron-emission following the neutrino-induced neutral-current excitation of
^{56}Fe and ^{208}Pb.
