Political and social forces shaping political science research and knowledge transfer in the Netherlands

The authors identify a third type of relevance that sits between the scholar-selected and state-directed poles that were identified in the opening chapter. This "middle position" is that of the pragmatic scholar seeking windows for narrowing funding possibilities of fundamental research, at the same time engaging freely with the potential research users that are the targets of impact. This type, referred to as "entrepreneurial relevance, seems to represent some of the key features of the Dutch context-such as the country's pragmatic and consensus-building political and social culture-, and it also matches findings on the advisory roles of political scientists".