Researchers have different roles

If researchers are aware of their roles and their functions, they can actively exercise them, anticipate expectations, and specify or negotiate where the influence of science ends.

Researchers support society effectively when they play different roles - within the framework of scientific integrity1. However, they are not always fully aware of these roles. In order for them to be able to perform their roles adequately and be accepted in these roles, they must recognize them and communicate them transparently. In doing so, they delimit an area for expectations about how their work can contribute to societal change. This also applies to other specialists who work at the intersection of science, society and politics. Roles can also change during various phases of a process.

Scientific work is potentially more effective when different researchers take on different roles. These roles make it easier to integrate the knowledge of different societal actors, which leads to a broader knowledge base.

Depending on their role(s), researchers may have to distance themselves from their academic identity or come into conflict with their personal values. In public debates or in an advisory role in particular, it is therefore important to distinguish and transparently communicate what is scientific knowledge and what is the researcher’s personal opinion. You do not always choose your role yourself; it can also be ascribed to you from outside.

Researchers can take on the following ideal-typical roles in the two types of knowledge produc­tion outlined above:

1. Pure scientists²: Their research generates scientific knowledge that is also available to politics and society. They do not participate in societal decision-making processes and do not pursue any interests.
2. Science arbiters²: On behalf of politics and society, they use scientific knowledge to answer specific questions. They provide facts to support societal decision-making processes without recommending what is preferable
3. Honest brokers²: Based on scientific knowledge, they show politics and society the possible options for action and their respective impacts. By highlighting the scope for action, they support societal decision-making processes without advocating for any one option.
4. Issue advocates²: Based on scientific knowledge, they recommend specific options for action to politicians and society. In doing so, they reduce the range of available options. They evaluate the knowledge provided in a normative way, consciously take a political position and thus participate in societal decision-making processes.
5. Facilitators: They coordinate cooperation between scientific and societal actors, ensure equal communication, facilitate learning and design processes, and integrate knowledge from different sources.
6. Advisors: They accompany, support and coach societal actors in shaping knowledge production processes in an integrative and collaborative way.
7. Mediators: They mediate between different perspectives or, in the event of power imbalances and conflicts, between actors.

Roles 1. to 4. are particularly relevant when researchers produce and convey knowledge (produc­tion of knowledge for society); 5. to 7. are examples of roles that they can take on in transdiscipli­nary projects (co-production of knowledge).

Researchers have also been increasingly acting as activists: they derive a moral obligation to take societal action based on scientific knowledge or their work and become involved in social move­ments.

Making the normative position transparent

Research that deals with societal challenges is oriented towards what is socially desirable or politi­cally required. It is therefore helpful to explicitly state the societal goals with which the research is aligned and to make the underlying value orientations transparent.

As in the case of transdisciplinary research, researchers can actively participate in the develop­ment of socio-political goals. As citizens and private individuals, they can also personally adopt a certain political position that influences their work, or advocate for certain goals in social movements, i.e. outside of their research work.