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.