Transfer in Social Sciences and Humanities: the traditional approach needs to be broadened

The interventions made during the conference “Knowledge Transfer on Social Sciences and Humanities,"  both at talks and roundtables, showed the need for broadening the vision of the meaning of transferring knowledge when it comes to social sciences and humanities (SSH) and having a system that allows to collect all of this diversity, evaluate it with quantitative and qualitative agreed indicators, and recognise the researchers behind it. At the same time, it shows the wish of finding adequate terminology with which researchers find themselves comfortable, speaking of co-creation and co-construction of knowledge, of users, of impact, and of social value. To train and raise awareness among researchers themselves that what they are doing, often without realising it, is transferring their knowledge and having an impact on society. And, finally, that the researchers who want to transfer knowledge can count on having professional tools and institutions that recognise their singularity and can support them.

Javier Lafuente, UAB rector, opened the conference claiming “the fundamental role of social sciences and humanities in explaining the social impact of the university"  and advocated for promoting the dialogue amongst disciplines to analyse phenomena and give answers “if we want to pave the way to a more inclusive, sustainable, and collaborative science, one that is open and beneficial to society." To completely achieve this goal, “we must recognise and strengthen the transfer side of the social sciences and humanities, and it is mandatory that the criteria and methods of evaluation consider the particularities of these fields of knowledge.”.

On her part, Laura Arnal, general director for Knowledge Transfer and Society, called to break “false myths that turn out to be fatal” about the existing “glamorous” tech transfer and another considered to be “its poor sister." Arnal highlighted the “big, transversal impact” that knowledge transfer in the SSH has on many aspects of society and the need for “adapting the current system to make anyone researching in these fields feel at home." The system has madurated and now has the “necessary elements” and an “impregnated culture” to support it, she declared. The new Catalan law of science claims the deployment of a new model to evaluate the impact of the results of research in social fields. “It is a commitment in which we all have to work together," she concluded.