Research Projects

BMBF Project: Knowledge Transfer on Cooperation Paths - Subproject Types, Contextual Conditions, and Potential for Interventions (T-PATHS)

How does knowledge transfer from basic research to application succeed? The project "Transfer Paths" (T-PATHS) addresses this question and takes a inventory of types of transfer pathways, their contextual conditions and interventions. While previous studies mainly analyze bilateral knowledge transfer between two or a few partners, our analysis focuses on longer transfer paths. In our understanding, these develop where chains of cooperation from basic research to application are repeated and make a relevant contribution to knowledge transfer. Our goal in the T-PATHS project is to make such chains of cooperation and cooperation paths visible in the natural and engineering sciences, including medicine in Germany, and to identify frequently frequented cooperation paths. (01.08.2022-31.07.2025)

DFG Project: Com­pe­ti­ti­ve Po­si­tio­n­ing of Uni­ver­si­ties and their Mem­bers

The project investigates the competitive positioning of researchers in relation to the competitive positioning of their universities. The competitive positioning of universities includes differences in performance and status as well as competitive ambitions and strategies concerning reputation, resources and talent.  As strategic organizational actors universities may differ in their competitive ambitions and positional strategies in various fields of competition. The competitive positioning of university members are their self-descriptions that refer to the competition for reputation, resources, and positions and the behavior of competitors. The central hypothesis of the project is that the competitive positioning of researchers in the context of multiple competition varies not only depending on the respective scientific community but also depending on the competitive organizational positioning of their universities. The subproject examines this hypothesis in a qualitative research design. It analyses the competitive positioning of six German universities based on document analyses and interviews with university leadership and relates them to the competitive orientation of researchers, which are analyzed based on websites, CVs, and interviews. The second funding period of the research group will include international comparisons.

BMBF Project: Q-KNOW - Relational Quality

Developing Quality through Collaborative Networks and Collaboration Portfolios

 How does the quality of science develop through collaborations? The collaborative project Q-KNOW seeks answers to that question. Focusing on co-authored papers by scientists in different organizations, we investigate in a mixed-methods-design how scientific publication patterns developed according to the proportion and impact of interorganizational collaborative networks, depending on the collaboration portfolios among organizations in Germany and how these patterns are leveraged to enhance scientific quality at organizational level.