Knowledge Transfer at RISC

At RISC, we bring research on social cohesion out of the academic ivory tower. Through close and ongoing collaboration with a wide range of practice partners, we transform scholarly insights into actionable knowledge and communicate them directly to society – including policymakers, the media, civil society organizations, and educational institutions.

Our Offerings

Social division, inflation, war, climate change – social cohesion today faces numerous challenges. Through our research findings, we aim to equip social actors to better understand these challenges and to foster public dialogue around them. To that end, we engage in a wide variety of knowledge transfer activities that focus on four major thematic areas:

Distancing from democracy
Inequality and conflicts over distribution
Engagement and solidarity at the local level
Values, identities, and worldviews

For these thematic areas, we offer a broad range of formats tailored to different societal audiences. These include the following:

Advisory and exchange opportunities for political stakeholders, such as the fellowship program “Science in Practice” or our digital HelpDesk for the rapid production of expert reports
Interactive educational tools, such as the platform “Solidarity Stories”, the database Protest Landscape Germany, and the Milieu Calculator developed by the Research Data Center of RISC
Local events such as the nationwide series “Cohesion Is…” and the Frankfurt debate format StreitClub
Multimedia formats such as the YouTube series FGZ Tapes and the web series Cohesion Commented

Concept and Organization

Knowledge transfer is an integral part of our identity at RISC – it makes our research an active catalyst for societal developments. The following aspects are particularly important to us in our transfer work:

Dialogue instead of one-way streets: Research and practice are in constant, mutual exchange. The idea is not only to convey scientific findings, but also to incorporate experiences and questions from the world of practice and to integrate them into further research.
Focus on key topics: Based on our four research areas, we investigate current challenges in society and develop concrete, practical solutions.
Joint communication: By combining knowledge transfer and public relations in the Science Communication Department, we ensure that our research results are communicated in a clear, understandable, and targeted manner.

Our transfer activities at RISC are carried out and organized at various levels:

Our researchers exchange ideas within 39 work packages with a total of over 140 practice partners, work with them to develop practice-relevant knowledge, and transfer this knowledge into over 160 different transfer formats and activities.
The central knowledge transfer department at the Frankfurt section supports the work packages in their activities and at the same time implements its own formats that bring together research findings from across the entire institute.

Detailed information on the concept of our knowledge transfer can be found in the chapter “Knowledge Transfer and Public Relations” of the current RISC work program (funding phase 2024-2029). It is available for download here (in German):