Knowledge Transfer

For the IRS as a member of the Leibniz Association it is a constitutive aspiration according to the motto “theoria cum praxi” to see the transfer of knowledge as an integral permanent task. Hence it is a significant part of the research agenda: in the research programs, which are determined for three to four years, basic research, applied research as well as the dialogue with the practical world are planned in close coordination on the one hand to provide research results to actors of spatial and urban development in practice, but also to the politics, economy, culture and civil society, and on the other hand to gain new practical insights through the dialogue with the actors and thus to open up new perspectives for research. That is why the transfer of knowledge at IRS is seen as a lively exchange.   

This reflexivity requires to plan and to realize possible applications and transfer formats according to specific target groups and contexts. Therefore the IRS developed a wide range of transfer instruments, which are improved in there implementation. Some of those instruments are events like the regional talks, which take place two to three times a year, the practical workshops, policy talks and the IRS international lecture, but also publication formats like the IRS policy briefs as well as intensive advisory, expertise and network activities of the researchers.

In 2016 the IRS systematized and reflected conceptional basics of knowledge transfer in social and spatial sciences to put the planning of transfer instruments on an established professional foundation. The compiled concept includes also new debates on social relevance of spatial social science and uses among others the “Pathways to Impact” approach, which is widespread in Great Britain, for analyzing transfer paths.