The critical issue of knowledge transfer and dissemination: a French perspective

The context of public research has dramatically changed over the last 20 years, with a shift in funding from recurrent institutional budgets to contractual project funding. This involves selection through bibliometric criteria, an increase in contractual staff, and a decrease in time for knowledge transfer. For academic fellows, whatever disciplines we are focusing on, transfer can be undertaken in various forms. We can analyse in each of them how the social benefit is conversely proportional to the university, research units and personal career benefit, which is a major obstacle for transfer initiatives and involvement. Faced with the international bibliometrics model, transfer can take place only in some specific conditions such as: a radical change in the research evaluation and grant system, universities depending on strong local partnerships, pressure from civil society, research units involved in social issues, very motivated academics willing to slow down their career, work twice as much—or who are already retired.