Building a bridge between research programmes and the needs of society - Synthesis report

Valenduc, Gérard [UCL] Vendramin, Patricia [UCL]

Society has a series of expectations or demands regarding research and development, and social groups use mediation structures to formulate these demands. Work and the environment are two areas in which organizations and other « relays » exist to bridge the gap between society’s needs and research policy decision-makers. However, two major obstacles have to be overcome. Firstly, society’s needs have to be properly formulated and translated into research issues. Secondly, channels of communication must be created with the appropriate bodies to ensure that emerging problems reach the ears of research policy decision-makers. This book deals with these two difficulties, which have to be overcome to establish effective « two-way » communication between the research system and civil society. The research presented here was carried out as part of the VALUE-Interfaces for innovation programme (European Commission, DG XIII-D2).