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Short abstract:

KIT focused on research for and with society in its excellence strategy. Real-world laboratories were established as places to implement transformative research. This contribution examines the question of the conditions under which research organisations can reach a transformative impact.

Long abstract:

Transformation research conceptualises change as the dynamic development of complex systems. The energy transition, the mobility transition and the digital transformation can be understood as such systems. Research should generate both orientation knowledge and assessment of potential consequences. To what extent can universities have a transformative effect? This question will be explored using the example of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the “research university in the Helmholtz Association”. As a university, KIT is bound by the Baden-Württemberg State Higher Education Act. It is also a member of the Helmholtz Association with it’s mission: "Our research should serve society and provide solutions to the central questions of our time".

This contribution critically reflects on the current state of transformative research at KIT and also sheds light on how KIT has changed as a research organisation. Involved early in scientific policy advice to the German Bundestag and the European Parliament, it gains impact in social change. Over time, the methodologically broad concept of technology assessment has become more participatory and currently, through research in real-world laboratories, more transformative. Research for and with society became a core issue of KIT excellence strategy. But how transformative can a tax-funded research organisation be? How actively can it participate in sustainable urban design, for example, and what about the necessary distance to ensure high quality research?