Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - English

The RMZ is launching the new ‘TransferSurvey’ project, which is developing a monitoring strategy on knowledge transfer. The field phase, which is interlinked with the Berlin Science Survey, will start at the beginning of next year. The survey will ask Berlin researchers about their experiences and views regarding knowledge transfer. Previous BSS data on knowledge transfer and qualitative interviews conducted as part of the TransferSurvey show that researchers’s engagement in transfer is high and at the same time strongly depends on the respective disciplinary context.

On 9 July, the Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises invited representatives from politics, business and science to the launch of the Transfer Council. The council aims to promote dialogue on how knowledge transfer between science and society can be enhanced. Leonie Schwichtenberg, Jens Ambrasat and Martin Reinhart from the Robert K. Merton Centre for Science Studies (RMZ) were also invited to present the new TransferSurvey project. The project, which is closely linked to the Berlin Science Survey, aims to develop a monitoring strategy for knowledge transfer in the Berlin research area. To this end, survey instruments will be designed and implemented to regularly collect data on Berlin researchers’ experiences and perspectives regarding knowledge transfer. The monitoring aims to identify knowledge transfer potential for non-academic stakeholders, support self-reflection and improvement of structural conditions within the Berlin research landscape and provide a basis for informed policy-making. The first data will be collected in January 2026 as part of the next wave of the BSS and should show what role knowledge transfer plays in a changing research environment.

The RMZ team already has experience in surveying knowledge transfer among researchers, as this was a key focus in the first wave of the BSS. The data indicates, among other things, that knowledge transfer must be viewed through a field-specific lens. Disciplinary knowledge contributes to a wide range of societal domains (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Relevance of research for non-scientific areas, by subject group

Secondly – and this is a surprisingly positive finding – knowledge transfer and exchange between researchers and stakeholders from various sectors of society are at a high level (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 Exchange relationships with the relevant areas

Relating these two assessments – on relevance and exchange – challenges the expectation that all researchers should engage with all societal groups. Exchange is meaningful when the content of research are relevant to the respective stakeholders in the first place.

To explore the connection between the type of research and the role of knowledge transfer in more depth, the BSS / TransferSurvey team conducted qualitative interviews with representatives from five different disciplines. It reveals that the respondents are very aware of knowledge transfer demands and possibilities. Furthermore they are strongly motivated to pursue various activities to communicate the results of their research and achieve an impact. The interviews also emphasize the great diversity of research between and within disciplines. The heterogeneity of research content, types and results requires different transfer formats. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach fails to account for the diversity of research contexts.

With the TransferSurvey, the RMZ is enhancing its expertise in monitoring and indicators, contributing to a data-driven public discourse on transfer. This provides decision-makers in politics and university administration with a solid basis for governance measures, while also making the effects of potential steering errors more visible.