Transfer of the future: UA11+ university alliance visits Kassel

"Workshops like this link the working level and the management level of our member universities in order to bring about substantial strategy development within the UA11+ for their core concerns. We want to breathe life into the claim that the UA11+ universities are helping to develop the transfer of the future," said Chancellor Dr. Oliver Fromm, who took part in the conference.

All universities in the network are united by the understanding that universities today naturally not only have an impact on the scientific community, but also on society in order to tackle major challenges such as climate issues, but also very specific regional tasks. The University of Kassel does this particularly in the area of sustainability and for its home region, which it enriches, for example, with spin-offs and start-ups, activities at the interface between science and society such as the SDG+ Lab or programs for structural change.

This development is not a matter of course. Transfer activities are usually still perceived as an additional task, although they are now an integral part of a comprehensive understanding of science. Nevertheless, they often mean additional work and require support structures such as start-up advice, cooperation offices or patent management. Transfer strategies are all the more important in order to strategically strengthen these structures, which have often grown through third-party funding. They should sharpen transfer activities internally and externally and drive their further development.

The following findings for the development of successful transfer structures became clear at the meeting:

...that transfer offices deal with a variety of processes at the interface of science, business and increasingly civil society, politics and culture
...that transfer as a discipline is in a process of further development in order to respond to the increased demands on universities as actors in social transformation processes
...that transfer staff bring a special profile of skills that is central to the success of inter- and transdisciplinary projects
...that successful transfer projects do not sufficiently contribute to the reputation of the researchers involved and that many universities therefore actively create incentives for transfer activities
... that the participatory development of transfer strategies can be an important step towards a living transfer culture
... that transfer strategies should be broadly based and legitimized by important bodies such as the university senate.

The UA11+ will publish a joint transfer mission statement in summer 2025, which is intended to mark the aspirations and orientation for the association. The University of Kassel has taken over the editorial management here.

Link UniKasselTransfer: www.unikasseltransfer.de
Link UA11+ : https://www.ua11plus.de