Incentivizing Impact Through Innovation and Knowledge Transfer: An International Review of University Policies

Research universities incentivize and reward knowledge production and knowledge transfer (KT) through their policies, including policies for tenure and promotion (T&P) and intellectual property (IP). Digital technology, societal expectations, and practices of research have changed the range, form, and accessibility of knowledge products. This paper examines T&P and IP policies at highly ranked global research universities to assess how policies account for facultyactivities that broaden the impact of their scholarship, particularly through IP and open scholarship. We find that while many incorporate these factors in policy, the majority do not do so comprehensively. In some cases, recognition of new forms of scholarship is constrained by the brevity of T&P policy or the delegation of criteria setting to individual schools or departments. Example policy language is provided to illustrate the ways that universities can articulate the evolving forms of KT. We recommend that universities develop policies for T&P that are both aligned in purpose and offer sufficient depth to describe the many ways that faculty contribute to university mission, both through their disciplines and through broader public service.