Handbook - Rendering Science Responsive
Handbook “Rendering Science Responsive: A Guide to Transfer and Third-Party Performance Dimensions”
Expectations placed on the science system are constantly rising, particularly with regard to its key function of generating new and surprising knowledge. Recently, this knowledge must be generated in a more targeted manner to meet societal expectations. In this context, the relationship between science and society is being balanced in terms of “relevance”: innovative technologies for the economy, decision-relevant knowledge for politics, and sustainable structures for the environment – better still, in collaboration with users, decision-makers, and citizens. While the idea that scientific knowledge should also have a social impact is not new, a new arrangement is emerging between science, higher education, and society. Concepts such as co-creation and co-innovation are increasingly enriching the vocabulary and practices of research and technology development. The emergence of so-called “transfer” or “knowledge exchange”, with an eye toward civil society, technological, or economic impact, is no longer just rhetoric in science and higher education policy; it is also becoming part of the organization of universities, research agendas and practices in science, as well as the activities and, more recently, the career profiles of researchers and teachers.
While enthusiastic support and criticism can already be heard, it is less clear
- what exactly is meant by “transfer”;
- what it implies for the diversity of disciplinary cultures, the university system in all its diversity, and the tasks of researchers, teachers, and university management, as well as for science and university management;
- what is actually meant by impact and how and why it is measured;
- what repercussions it has on science and higher education. After all, knowledge exchange raises thorny questions about “truth versus usefulness” or “autonomy versus responsiveness.”
Given the diversity of phenomena and questions hidden behind the collective singular term “knowledge exchange,” practitioners, advocates, and supporters want to orient themselves, gain a better understanding through concrete examples, and learn from critical reflection what implications this may have for the hotly debated future viability of the science system (in Germany).
A science system that is no longer just a driver of innovation but is increasingly driven by innovation and valuable expectations itself, and a higher education system that is supposed to or wants to fulfil these expectations with limited resources, could use some help navigating through sometimes rough waters, a confusing variety of forms, and still open horizons.
Prof. Sabine Maasen and Prof. Hans-Hennig von Grünberg (University of Potsdam) aim to provide this navigational aid through their project. Together with more than 60 co-authors, they are working on the handbook “Rendering Science Responsive: A Guide to Transfer and Third-Party Performance Dimensions.” It is aimed at anyone involved in research and teaching, as well as in science and higher education policy, who is interested in the establishment, implementation, analysis, and evaluation of processes of (co-creative) knowledge and technology transfer.
Publication date: Spring 2027. Publisher: Springer.