WIDEN

Knowledge Transfer Profiles in German Higher Education (WIDEN)

Initial situation and project objectives

In recent years, the importance of academic knowledge transfer has been increasingly acknowledged. Therefore, the WIDEN project aims at a holistic and broad analysis of knowledge transfer on different levels of the German higher education system. It addresses the research question of which knowledge transfer profiles prevail at the level of organization at universities and UAS, as well as at the level of individual scientists, and how these profiles mutually influence each other..

On the basis of a multi-level model, the existing transfer profiles, consisting of transfer understanding, transfer mechanisms or channels, transfer content and transfer partners, are to be identified and linked at the level of the universities (meso) and at the level of the individual scientists (micro). The data basis is a mixed-methods approach with a broad quantitative survey, secondary statistical as well as database-based analysis of university characteristics, validation interviews, focus group discussions and case studies.

Conceptually, an exploratory research approach is followed, in which organizational and individual transfer profiles are determined inductively based on the collected data and findings. An important goal is to capture the different profiles of the disciplines and to identify barriers to transfer. Thus, the aim is to initiate a discussion among universities on how transfer can be optimized and meaningfully integrated into the overall tasks of universities alongside teaching and research.

Contact: 

Ariane Berg
Phone: +49(0)234/915923-0
E-Mail: Ariane.Berg(at)ifi-ge.de

Project Partners:

The WIDEN project is carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, the Institute for Innovation Research and Management at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen and the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer.

Funded by: