Negotiating Research Norms between Academic and Industrial Research - The Case of a Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings in Norway

Abstract

In this article, experiences from eight years of work in a large research centre on zero emission buildings, which included both academic and industrial research, are presented and analysed. Based on principles of empirical relativism, the aim is not to distinguish between good and bad science but rather to study empirically how different norms held by researchers and embedded in institutional rules have been performed and negotiated. The analysis focuses on episodes that reveal tensions between norms of academic and industrial research. These tensions were navigated in the centres work through temporarily suspending specific sets of norms, by translating the universal approach of academic research into locally relevant knowledge and by engaging in work around pilot buildings that acted as boundary objects. Practical advice for similar research constellations concludes the article.