Third mission activities, where universities engage actively with society, have grown significantly in importance within today’s academic landscape. These activities encompass communication, outreach, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and innovation, enabling universities to fulfill their societal responsibilities effectively. However, their implementation also raises complex and consequential issues that warrant critical examination. This workshop aims to delve into the impact of third mission policies and activities on research, research institutions, and broader society.

By examining approaches from Europe, China, and other regions, we seek to uncover insights into how mobilizing researchers and institutions contributes to societal change amidst global challenges like geopolitical tensions, human rights issues, and environmental changes affecting international academic relations.

Key objectives

• Investigate the current landscape of third mission policies and activities worldwide, focusing on strategies, programs, and impacts in Europe and China, particularly in communication, outreach, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and innovation.
• Analyze how these policies and activities influence research and research institutions globally, emphasizing strategies, metrics, codes of conduct, and collaborative standards.
• Identify best practices and lessons to shape future third mission policies, balancing academic freedom with societal engagement.
• Explore the intricate interactions between third mission activities and universities' broader responsibilities, critically examining their impact on research performance, science-society relations, and international cooperation.

This workshop aims to foster dialogue among academics, policymakers, and practitioners, promoting a deeper understanding of how universities can effectively navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by their third mission initiatives to contribute meaningfully to societal development. Graduate students and early-career scholars seeking to expand their knowledge and network in the field of science communication, public engagement, entrepreneurship, and innovation are also welcome participants.

Date and venue

• The one-day workshop will take place on August 29, 2024, at Aarhus University’s Conference Center
• Location: Fredrik Nielsens Vej 2-4, 8000 Aarhus C. Building 1427, Room 149 (M1)

Program and speakers

• 9:00-9:15 Arrival and coffee/tea
• 9.15-9.20: Welcome by Lone Ryg Olsen, Director of Enterprise and Innovation, Aarhus University 
• 9:20-10:45 The impact of third mission policies and activities in China, Europe, and beyond (three talks of 20 minutes each followed by Q&A)
  • Xiaomin Zhu, Peking University and Aarhus University (visiting scholar) "Different cultures, different ways: reflections on Third Mission policies and activities in China"
  • Alan Irwin, Aarhus University and Copenhagen Business School "Always relevant? University third missions in an institutional perspective"
  • Stine Haakonsson, Copenhagen Business School "Bridging academic freedom, global missions, and securitization: the role of universities and researchers in the new geography of innovation"
• 10:45-11:00 Coffee break
• 11:00-12:30 The third mission and open science (three talks of 20 minutes each followed by Q&A)
  • Kaare Aagaard, Aarhus University "Open Science and third mission activities: Overlapping objectives and overlapping barriers" 
  • Gitte Kragh, Aarhus University "Science with and for Society: the Role of Citizen Science" 
  • Bertil Dorch, University Library of Southern Denmark "How everything comes together: Perspectives on Open/Responsible/Citizen Science in the era of CoARA"
• 12:30-13:15 Lunch (sandwiches)
• 13:15-14:45 Consequences of the third mission on communication, governance, and integrity (three talks of 20 minutes each followed by Q&A)
  • Lise Degn, Aarhus University "Responsible leadership in contemporary research institutions"
  • Antoinette Fage-Butler, Aarhus University "The third mission of universities: Perspectives from a project on public trust in science"
  • Tine Ravn, Aarhus University "Social Aspects of Third Mission Activities: Perceptions, Possibilities and Implications"
• 14:45-15:00 Coffee break
• 15:00-15:30 Keynote by Ingrid d’Hooghe, Clingendael China Centre "Fostering EU-China academic relations amidst geopolitical tensions" (online presentation)
• 15:30-16:00 Final wrap-up

Participation

The workshop will be open to anyone interested. We anticipate attracting a diverse academic audience from all faculties, with capacity for up to 50 people. Additionally, there will be an option to participate via Zoom. Please contact the organizers to get the link.

Abstracts

"Different cultures, different ways: reflections on Third Mission policies and activities in China" by Xiaomin Zhu, Associate Professor, Philosophy Department / Science Communication Center, Peking University (visiting scholar at Aarhus University from June-September 2024)

Third Mission is a relative new concept to China, but Chinese universities and institutes have been encouraged to face the market/enterprise, to answer the need and expectation of society/govenment, and to communicate with public in recent decades. As a result, many western academic concepts and theories have been introduced and discussed in various related communities, such as National Innovation System, Triple Helix, deficit model, science communication, engagement, and civil science, etc. And China also proposed that innovation and science popularization are like the two wings of a bird, which shows the increasing attention of the latter. However, there are still many misunderstanding and distorted practice of these mainly western concepts and theories in China. This talk will give some Chinese examples such as national Independent Innovation Strategy, Science and Technology Week, science cafe, and concensus conference not only to show different pictures and practical ways of these activities in China, but also analyse the cultural reasons and social mechanism behind these phenomena with inevitable Chinese cultural characteristics. With some exiting new trends, and on the basis of reflections on Third Mission policies and activities in China I will try to provide some alternative choice and possibilities in science innovation and communication, which borrowing wisdom from Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) and Taiji thinking.Different with the reductionism and atomism of science methodology, TCM pays more attention to the Doctrine of Mean, relations, interactions, and holism, hoping these Chinese perspectives could shed enlighenment on the Third Mission too.

"Always relevant? University third missions in an institutional perspective" by Alan Irwin, Professor, The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Aarhus University, and Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

The focus in this presentation is on the notion that university research should possess societal impact – or relevance. In contemporary discussion, relevance is often presented as a new requirement and a demand from external stakeholders. Taking the case of two non-traditional locations for the social sciences in Denmark, I suggest that ‘relevance’ has been actively constitutive of both universities from the beginning – even if the definition and practice of relevance has been a matter of discussion, change and contestation. Relevance has over time accumulated new meanings which co-exist with older concerns. It follows that, even when universities express a commitment to a third mission or societal relevance, the practical form and enactment of that commitment can vary substantially.

"Bridging academic freedom, global missions, and securitization: the role of universities and researchers in the new geography of innovation" by Stine Haakonson, Associate Professor, Centre for Business and Development Studies, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, and Principal Coordinator for Social Sciences at the Sino-Danish Center

Enhancing national science output and quality increasingly involves the building of capacity for international collaboration and global organizing bringing the best minds together to solve grand challenges. Over the past decades, the world has experienced major shifts in the global distribution of cutting-edge science, technology and innovation resulting in a new geography of science and innovation. This geography differs from the previous as it is characterized by multipolarity and consists of more diverse actors. As new-comer knowledge economies, particularly China, have developed strong national science capacities the previously strong science nations (US, Japan and EU) are increasingly challenged in their core competitiveness. Looking at science output today, China is the world’s largest producer of scientific publications and a highflyer in triadic patents. Chinese universities are moving fast to the top of international rankings (seven Chinese universities are on the top ten of Nature top-performing universities from 2023). With this shift in gravity, knowledge has organized and re-organized into global collaborative networks across political alliances. Until recently this has been following the trends in the corporate era of hyper-globalization.

However, recently the geopolitical order has faced major changes. In fact, it is under reconstruction and the networks are exposed to uncertainties and unintended consequences. Globalization is changing its nature with concepts of de-coupling and strategic coupling entering the sphere of national innovation policies. The new and emerging knowledge economies are suddenly seen to be outside the political and security alliances of countries that were in the lead in forming the neoliberal global rule-based global order. All this is leading to responses and interventions by governmental agencies at the national level, now setting directions that links innovation policy and university practices to foreign policy and processes of securitization. For universities and researchers this has major implication as it has led to a shift in their role in science diplomacy. Increasingly internationalization and global innovation networks have become more of a balancing act between those national policies still emphasizing the value of collaboration based on excellence as well as academic freedom and those of de-coupling. Thus, maneuvering the need for interactions between the best scientists and environments in the world while protecting national science systems. 

New guidelines for internationalization of universities emphasize the security risks with international research collaborations and communicate the importance of continued high levels of international collaborations. In Denmark the URIS guidelines developed in collaboration with the intelligence service, result in a situation where scientific networks are placed under scrutiny and called into question. At the same time most researchers emphasize that cross-border collaboration is integral to research and valued by scientists on both sides of an emergent divide. This emerging field has strings to the national political strategies, university regulation and governance, and individual researchers’ personal priorities. Hence looking into what happens to universities’ international engagement and researchers’ global networks when politics comes to the fore. Zooming into the scientific relationships between Denmark and China.

"Open Science and third mission activities: Overlapping objectives and overlapping barriers" by Kaare Aagaard, Open Science Coordinator, Aarhus University

There are substantial overlaps between the main objectives of the Open Science movement on the one side and ambitions to further the third mission activities of universities on the other. In this respect, the adoption of many of the most central Open Science practices also has the potential to facilitate increased societal engagement of universities as institutions and academics as individuals. However, there are also common barriers for both the adoption of Open Science practices and the prioritization of increased societal engagement. The barriers to both are to a large extent linked to the current reward system of science. From this outset, the presentation first outlines the characteristics of a number of interwoven crises currently plaguing the traditional academic model and shows how the Open Science movement can be seen as a response to these. Secondly, it is argued that a reform of the research assessment system and the academic reward system is needed to remedy these crises and that promising steps in this direction already are being taken at the European level and at selected universities. Inspirational examples are then given from the COARA initiative (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment), which a number of Danish universities and funding organisations already have committed to, and from Utrecht University, where a number of concrete initiatives have been launched since 2021. With both sets of examples it is shown how the ambitions to further Open Science and societal engagement in practice can go hand in hand and what potential solutions might look like. Finally, barriers to change are discussed and suggestions of ways forward are presented.

"Science with and for Society: the Role of Citizen Science" by Gitte Kragh, Postdoc and Member of Board of Directors of European Citizen Science Association, Center for Science Studies, Aarhus University

Third Mission activities can take many forms, including one of engaging the public and directly involving them in research projects, i.e. citizen science, one of the eight pillars of Open Science. Public participation in scientific research has a very long tradition, for example in ecology where birders, or amateur ornithologists, have recorded their sightings of birds for centuries, providing scientists, land managers and authorities with valuable information for research, land management and conservation measures. Today, public engagement is rising on the international agenda, thus creating opportunities for researchers and third mission activities which is the focus of this presentation. For example, in the EU Horizon Europe funding programme, public engagement is a focus area, reflected in the inclusion of Open Science under the ‘Excellence’ evaluation criterion, and many funding calls specify inclusion of societal actors and citizens. Some challenges for science to fully exploit these opportunities will be discussed along with possible options for mitigation.

”How everything comes together: Perspectives on Open/Responsible/Citizen Science in the era of CoARA” by Bertil Dorch, Library Director, University Library of Southern Denmark

It is often said that Open Science is just science done right.  In the context of Third Missions, that means that science and research are not only available and accessible, but also useful to society: Hence, it is both trustworthy and relevant. In turn, it follows that universities much engage with many representatives of society to establish such trust and relevancy. And, that when assessing its successes in doing so, obviously they must address not only whether all relevant partners in society have access to relevant research, but whether said research has indeed been assimilated. Logically, universities, research institutions and funders must recruit, and reward based on meeting new criteria. And this is where Open Science, Reponsible Conduct and Citizen Science can meet up and greet the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).  In this talk, I will deliver my input on the road ahead to being able to assess the diversity and output of scholarly communication in the future – as well as the status as to these issues at University of Southern Denmark (SDU). In doing so, I will explore measures of impact and reach of scholarly work. The aim is to highlight the challenges and opportunities presented by evolving paradigms, hopefully shedding light on the next steps.

"Responsible leadership in contemporary research institutions" by Lise Degn, Associate Professor, The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Aarhus University

As research institutions are becoming more open towards society, e.g. through a variety of third mission activities, it is also becoming increasingly important to safeguard research integrity and responsible conduct of research. An abundance of institutional policies have been produced over the past decade to address this issue, but do such policies actually work or do they mainly function as window-dressing to uphold a legitimacy in a system under pressure? In the presentation, I will present recent and ongoing research on the translation of policies and the role of leadership in this process. The presentation will shed light on the multitude of (sometimes conflicting) input leaders use to translate these overall policies and guidelines into workable and recognizable structures for researchers and thereby act as the mediating layer between the policy articulations and the individual researchers and research groups. This will hopefully provide a more nuanced perspective on the challenges and consequences of both third mission and other pressures on universities and researchers in general

"The third mission of universities: Perspectives from a project on public trust in science" by Antoinette Fage-Butler, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University

Since 2003, third mission activities are mandatory for Danish universities; they encompass elements such as new forms of collaboration, a focus on furthering the growth, welfare and development of society, as well as the exchange of knowledge and competencies, where researchers engage actively with society. This need to undertake third mission activities means that researchers delivering on the third mission should address the messy or so-called “wicked problems” of society, and this calls for greater interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, and new forms of knowledge development. In this presentation, I consider an interdisciplinary research project called “(Mis)trust of Scientific Expertise” in light of the third mission of universities in the Danish context, and explore related theoretical areas such as modes of knowledge, and quadruple and quintuple helices of innovation. I discuss the potential implications of the third mission in relation to our research project and its object of analysis, public trust in science. I conclude by teasing out the implications of third mission activities for ambitious collaborative research programmes, indicate disciplines that may be particularly well-positioned to deliver on the third mission, and suggest future directions.

"Social Aspects of Third Mission Activities: Perceptions, Possibilities and Implications" by Tine Ravn, Associate Professor, The Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Aarhus University

While third mission activities (TM) can be broadly defined as activities related to external interrelations with society, state-of the-art literature has primarily focused on activities and indicators related to academic entrepreneurship rather than emphasising the social aspects of third mission activities such as popularized science communication and initiatives to increase interactions with citizens. In this presentation, I explore these social aspects of TM and discuss their conceptual and empirical implications in relation to the societal roles and responsibilities of universities as well as identify potential tensions and challenges that impact science-society relations (e.g. existing incentive structures, external expectations and role perceptions). The presentation draws on cross-study Danish qualitative data from the European project POIESIS, which examines the impact of public engagement, responsible research, and science mediation on public trust in science. I present key findings on the perspectives of citizens, (non)institutional stakeholders and mediators regarding science communication, knowledge transfer, and public engagement, and discuss the nature and implications of diverse (role) perceptions of external engagement and science representation. Finally, I consider whether, and in what ways, a greater implementation of social TM aspects could increase trust in research across wider society.

"Fostering EU-China academic relations amidst geopolitical tensions" by Ingrid d’Hooghe, Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael China Centre (online presentation)

Europe-China collaboration in higher education and research has increased exponentially in recent decades, leading to major achievements in advancing scinece. Whether in the area of student mobility or inter-university research collaboration, European and Chinese actors continue to find one another. However, in recent years the geo-political climate in which this cooperation with China takes place has become complicated and many concerns have come to the fore. Policy makers and researchers at research institutions now face questions such as: how to deal with a ‘strategic competitor’ and ‘systemic rival’, as the EU has labeled China, that is at the same time a higher education and science powerhouse with whom we as Europeans need to collaborate when we want to address global problems? Or: how to avoid paranoia with regard to collaboration with China while expanding awareness and alertness about potential harm to European interests and liberal values? This speech will address these challenges. It will discuss S&T developments in China, the state of affairs in Europe - China science collaboration, and the development and implementation of research security guidelines in Europe. It will end with the argument that while it is very important to pay more attention to mitigating risks in international science collaboration, this should not stop us from collaborating with China.

Organizers

• Xiaomin Zhu, Associate Professor, Peking University (visiting researcher at Aarhus University from July-September 2024
• Kristian H. Nielsen, Associate Professor and Head of Centre, Centre for Science Studies, Aarhus University, khn@css.au.dk