Supporting the transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology between Higher Education Institutions and other societal actors – the so-called \u00abthird mission\u00bb of universities – has long been a focus of higher education and science policy. The idea behind it: Through structured exchange processes between members of the knowledge triangle (education, research and innovation) technological or social innovations can be jointly identified and further developed \u2013 much in the spirit of open innovation and open science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At European Union level, the idea of a mutual knowledge transfer is implemented, for example, in the Knowledge and Innovation Communities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). In Germany, too, the public support of knowledge transfer has gained even further momentum in recent years. In addition to the major research funding programmes in the higher education sector such as the Excellence Strategy, the funding line \u00abInnovative University\u00bb has precisely this focus. Starting from 2016, it is targeted at small and medium-sized universities in particular, but also universities of applied sciences. Universities get support to strategically develop and implement their profile and structures for the transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology. The focus here is on networking with the regional eco-system of the universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technopolis was commissioned by the BMBF in early summer 2020 to support the further development of \u00abInnovative University\u00bb with a formative evaluation. Together with two partners from Germany and Austria, we first examine how current conceptual debates about the term \u00abknowledge transfer\u00bb are taken up in the design of \u00abInnovative Hochschule\u00bb and how the programme itself shaped the discourse. The analyses focus on evaluations of the transfer concepts of the universities and university networks, on-site visits to the funded universities as well as interviews and online surveys of regional stakeholders. In order to be able to work out the effect of the funding measure, we are also conducting a control group analysis on developments at comparable nonfunded universities. The current accompanying measures of the project executing agency are also examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n