Incentives for knowledge valorisation: a European benchmark

Studies on incentives to stimulate researcher engagement in knowledge valorisation have primarily focused on incentives for economic output and it remains unclear how universities configure incentives for a broad societal impact of knowledge. Therefore, this article explores the presence and design of incentives for the full range of knowledge valorisation activities by employing a bottom-up, mixed-methods design. In 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives from highly ranked European universities, 11 distinct incentives for valorisation activities with an academic, civil society, entrepreneurial or state-governmental orientation were identified. Subsequently, a quantifying survey was conducted (n = 48). Perceived effectiveness did not directly correspond to presence and desirability, indicating that additional motives play a role in implementing incentives, including managing conflict of interest situations. For non-scalable (hour-based) activities broader bandwidths of allocated percentages were employed that were more dependent on case by case attribution of income and for which more conditions to limit conflicts of interest were in place. Interestingly, this study found a negative correlation between the number of such restricting conditions being in place for consultancy and the university’s overall success in industry income. A flowchart is presented that university management may use to align the selection and design of their incentives with their motives.