TABLE 4.
Interaction challenges.
| Challenges | Categories | Example | #Codes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Translational challenges | Language barriers | “Challenges in applying the results of social science research also lie in the different ways in which journalists and scientists work with language” (SSHscholar_ID178, 14). | 27 |
| Conflicting system logics | “Politics has to make decisions and win majorities or, create acceptance. Science can give recommendations, but this might just result in different recommendations coexisting [...]” (Intermediary_ID110, 12). | 73 | |
| Institutional challenges | Lack of resources | “The everyday routine at the university, with extensive teaching and exams obligations and increasingly also administrative tasks, which coincides with shrinking resources, already leaves little room for research. This means that the Third Mission is an additional burden” (SSHscholar_ID192, 12). | 19 |
| Lack of organizational support | “Institutions should create structured incentive systems for scientists to raise awareness of societal challenges and to consider what they themselves can contribute to solving them” (SSHscholar_ID65, 28) | 19 | |
| Lack of rewards | “The transfer (not only the publication) of research results should be valued as an important aspect of scientific work in education but also in evaluations” (Intermediary_ID195, 13). | 20 | |
| Epistemic challenges | Ambiguity of results | “But in contrast to the natural sciences, there are rarely any clear “truths” here. So it’s not easy for the media to present a comprehensive and well-balanced picture when selecting scientific contributions” (PublicAdmin_ID61, 25). | 23 |
| Conflicting paradigms | “One challenge is the question of how issues that are scientifically controversial can be presented to the public in such a way that the reputation of science does not suffer and, ideally, this heterogeneity can even be used productively” (SSHscholar_ID179, 13). | 9 | |
| Uptake challenges | Lacking appreciation of SSH expertise | “I see challenges in the general perception and appreciation of social science research being too low” (Intermediary_ID201, 13). | 27 |
| Public attention dynamics | “Provocation is better “received” than factuality; “loud” colleagues are simply more seen and heard” (SSHscholar_ID67, 13). | 13 | |
| Risk of instrumentalization | “Politics must not misuse scientific findings for its own agendas and thereby partly discredit them” (Economy_ID96, 18). | 5 |