What question did this study set out to answer?

This report aims to understand researchers' attitudes and preferences regarding research-practice collaboration in Germany.

June 4, 2026Open Access

Attitudes and Preferences of Researchers Employed at German Public Research Institutes and Universities of Applied Sciences on Research-Practice Collaboration

Key Points

This report aims to understand researchers' attitudes and preferences regarding research-practice collaboration in Germany.
Conducted two web-based surveys targeting researchers at major German research organisations and universities of applied sciences.
The primary survey collected 862 responses focused on experiences with knowledge transfer and co-production.
A complementary survey garnered 63 responses from HAW professors in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Fraunhofer researchers report high engagement in knowledge transfer and co-production, while Max Planck researchers show lower involvement.
Most respondents value knowledge transfer and co-production and wish for more engagement opportunities, despite low training participation.
Critical views on the third-party funding system highlight application burdens and inflexibility.

Abstract

This technical report presents the survey data and descriptive analysis from work package 3 of the KLUGER Transfer project (Klima–Umwelt–Gesundheit), a transfer project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and conducted jointly by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the International Centre for Sustainable Development at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences between December 2021 and December 2024. The study examines the attitudes and preferences of researchers employed at German public research institutes and universities of applied sciences (HAWs) regarding research-practice collaboration, specifically knowledge transfer (KT) and knowledge co-production (KCP) with non-academic partners. To this end, two web-based surveys were conducted: a primary survey targeting scientific employees at the four major German research organisations — the Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, Leibniz Association, and Helmholtz Association — which ran from June to September 2023 and yielded 862 usable responses; and a small, complementary survey directed at professorial researchers at HAWs in North Rhine-Westphalia conducted in early 2024, generating 63 usable responses. The survey instrument comprised four parts: researchers' prior experience with KT and KCP; their personal views on these forms of practice collaboration; a discrete choice experiment in which participants repeatedly selected between pairs of hypothetical research projects defined by six attributes (funding volume, chances of academic success, chances of societal impact, intensity of KT, scope of KCP, and type of practice partner); and a set of socio-demographic questions. The descriptive analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity across research organisations. While Fraunhofer researchers report extensive experience with and strong institutional support for KT and KCP, Max Planck researchers show comparatively lower engagement and less employer backing. A majority of respondents across all organisations consider KT and KCP meaningful for their work and express interest in future engagement, including among those without prior experience. Participation in dedicated training programmes remains rare, though demand is considerable. Opinions on the German third-party funding system are predominantly critical, with burdensome application procedures and insufficient flexibility cited most frequently as systemic weaknesses. The data and Stata do-files underlying this report are available upon request. Econometric analyses and interpretations of the discrete choice experiment are reported separately in Heinen and Bender (2026).

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