PORTRAYING THE NEW - COMMUNICATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY INNOVATORS AND POTENTIAL USERS

How do academics communicate their research to external constituents? As U.S. research universities seek to emphasize knowledge application through outreach, answers to this question increase in importance. Thi s article describes an exploratory analysis of conversations between a nd perceptions of (1) nine university researchers investigating hazard ous waste remediation and (2) sets of environmental consulting enginee rs, state government regulators, and industrial scientists. Implicatio ns for two types of outreach-university-based technology transfer and diffusion of innovations-are discussed.