Introducing TransLab - A method for organizational development of university-driven knowledge and technology transfer towards transformative change

Universities have been confronted with drastically changed expectations in the recent past. There is an increased importance of aligning academic activities with the aim to add to sustaina-ble development transformations on the regional level (Cuesta‐Claros et al. 2021). Such a de-mand has especially brought university-driven knowledge and technology transfer activities on the agenda of science policy and likewise public interest (Trencher et al. 2014; Rinaldi et al. 2018). Simultaneously, a variety of conceptional approaches and formats have been on the rise that aim for integrating various stakeholders along experimental interventions for transformative change (e.g. Urban Living Labs, Real-World Labs, Transition Labs) (McCrory et al. 2022; Wirth et al. 2019). In general, such conceptions and formats can be referred to as Innovation Labs. In Germany and beyond, an increasing number of universities have been adapting Innovation Labs as a key element for strategic research and transfer foci (Holmberg et al. 2015; Wanner et al. 2020). In this regard, Innovation Labs are supposed to foster a strategic adjustment of transfer activities towards societal missions and sustainable development perspectives (Purcell et al. ... mehr2019; Hekkert et al. 2020). Though, recent research reveals that adapting Innovation Labs for university-driven transfer activities is not a trivial task, due to persisting institutional conditions in academia (Held et al. 2022).
While extensive knowledge has been gained about Innovation Labs in various fields of applica-tion, little is known about how existing university-driven knowledge and technology transfer units can be further developed into organizations with a transformative orientation. TransLab aims to address the need for a targeted and systematic process of organizational development and innovation at the interface between science and society. As a practice-oriented method for the organizational development of transfer organizations, TransLab comprises practical steps for the systematic development of organizational capacities, which are designed for the implementa-tion of transfer activities to support sustainability transitions.
The method was developed by a group of social scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technol-ogy (KIT) that collaborated with an existing transfer unit, the KIT Innovation HUB, for joint activities in the research project “TRANSFORM” (2021-2024) . The KIT Innovation HUB is mainly driven by a group of engineers with diverse foci (e.g. civil engineering, construction chemistry). Generally, the KIT Innovation HUB aims for technology transfer in the field of sus-tainable urban infrastructure. Use cases are for instance construction stock of buildings, sustain-able materials for bridge constructions or sustainable urban water infrastructure. Accordingly, for fostering sustainability solutions, knowledge and technology transfer processes must incor-porate all relevant actors along value chains of products and interventions. As “conventional” methods for creating, designing and transferring infrastructure products are fail to address the scope and aim of sustainable transitions, the KIT Innovation HUB is in demand of novel for-mats, methods and further organizational capacities to do so. For developing a method that ful-fils these requirements, the KIT Innovation HUB as a transfer organization served as an indepth case study. Methodologically, the group of social scientists lifted data from workshops with the KIT Innovation HUB team and some of its customers (private/public), interviews as well as by regularly attending team meetings. In the end, the development of TransLab resulted from vari-ous research stages, which were oriented towards the overall goal of characterizing and evaluat-ing the KIT Innovation HUB as an existing transfer organization. The organization’s current form was evaluated on the basis of relevant success factors for innovation labs that were gener-ated in a previous step. In a following step, demands for further development into a transfer unit with a transformative orientation could be derived. The research stages mentioned and its find-ings provided the basis for a practice-oriented approach to the development of TransLab.
The method consists of four phases (I – IV) that are culminating in an iterative loop. Based on the inquiry (I) and assessment (II) of existing organizational capacities, action measures are de-rived for adapting (III) capacities towards a transformative orientation. Lastly, the developed action measures are implemented in ongoing transfer projects (IV). The fourth phase also marks the initiating moment of an iterative loop including the above-mentioned phases. Figure 1 is proving a graphical depiction of the adaptive cycle. The loop is referencing the adaptive cycle heuristic or “panarchy” by Gunderson (2012). In this way, organizational development is geared towards dynamic phases of coordinated change and adaptation relative to insights, outcomes and demands of transfer projects. In addition to a process-oriented application description, TransLab also provides hands-on resources for inquiring, evaluating and systematically expanding organi-zational capacities towards transformative change.
For an outlook, it must be emphasized that TransLab as a method for a targeted further devel-opment of transfer organisations does not represent a rigid patent recipe. The process-oriented approach based on dynamic phases of change and adaptation makes it necessary to apply the method to individual problems of concrete transfer projects. Even though the four phases of the "adaptive cycle" outline a process-oriented approach, it must be further examined in the application of TransLab to what extent the four phases correspond to the challenges and findings of transfer processes.