Research cooperation
In order to gain a better insight into existing research collaborations, the scientists and scholars at the four BUA institutions were asked more specifically with whom they collaborate in their research. In science policy contexts, the call for interdisciplinarity was and is often heard, and increasingly also for transdisciplinarity. While interdisciplinarity refers to cooperation with partners from other disciplines within academia, transdisciplinary research is understood to mean cooperation with partners outside academia. Among the scientists and academics surveyed in the Berlin research area, it is evident, as expected, that a large proportion of those surveyed (77.1%) work regularly, i.e. here “often”, “very often” or “always” with colleagues from their own discipline (see Figure 66). Interdisciplinary work is a common practice for 39.2% of respondents. Transdisciplinary research, i.e. collaboration with non-scientists or people outside of academia, is a regular practice for 13.3% of respondents. Over time, there have been no significant changes in intra- and transdisciplinarity. The indicator for collaboration with colleagues from other disciplines (interdisciplinarity) has decreased from 50% to 39%.
The numbers do not necessarily indicate a need to increase transdisciplinary research. Among those who do not conduct transdisciplinary research, there are several groups. On the one hand, for many research topics it may be very appropriate to conduct the research not transdisciplinarily, but only disciplinarily or interdisciplinarily. On the other hand, there may be individual research contexts that would be suitable for transdisciplinary research, because they would experience added value for the content and results of the research as a result. Here, one should rely on the judgment of the researchers themselves.
The second question on research collaborations relates to various partners within and outside the Berlin research area. The vast majority state that they work with other scientists from their own department or team (84.5%) (see Figure 67). At the same time, collaborations with partners from their own university predominate (68.5%). There is also a lot of cooperation with other universities in Germany and abroad: 56% and 54% of respondents respectively stated this. At the same time, this means that when it comes to cooperation with partners at other universities, the question of regional location plays a lesser role, because a larger proportion of respondents tend to cooperate with partners from outside the region or even internationally than with partners from other universities in Berlin (39%).
At 44%, collaborations with non-university research institutions are also widespread among the respondents. In contrast to university collaborations, collaborations with non-university research institutions have a significantly stronger regional focus. Almost one-third of the respondents maintain research collaborations with non-university research institutions within the Berlin research area (see Figure 67).
Slightly less frequent, at 30.9%, are research collaborations with companies, most of which are in Germany. Just under 19% of all BUA respondents cooperate with companies from the Berlin research area. Research cooperation with universities of applied sciences (UAS) is less common (9%). Cooperation with civil society actors and organisations, such as foundations, associations, organisations, NGOs and citizens, is more common (13%). The development of collaborations does not show any reliable changes over time, with the exception of the increase in UAS collaborations from 6% to 9% (Figure 68). An increase in collaborations was not to be expected over a two-year period, especially since the level of collaboration was already very high in 2022.
