Modes of Relevance in Research: Towards Understanding the Promises and Possibilities of Doing Relevance

Abstract In response to growing social, ecological and health-related challenges, scientists are increasingly expected to demonstrate the societal relevance of their work. This special issue critically examines the concept of “relevance” in scientific research, exploring how it is defined, enacted and contested across disciplines, institutions and collaborations. We propose a practice-oriented conceptualization of “doing relevance”, understanding it not as an inherent property of knowledge, but as a situated achievement shaped by various practices. To this end, we introduce four distinct modes of relevance: 1) relevance as reorienting research topics and disciplines; 2) relevance as engaging societal actors in user-driven research; 3) relevance as reshaping interactions between science and policy; and 4) relevance as transforming academic institutions. The contributions to this issue analyze how these four modes are enacted through the practices of diverse actors, demonstrating that relevance is not a static or self-evident concept, but is continually redefined in situated and context-specific engagements. Together, the articles illustrate how researchers navigate diverse expectations and institutional demands, leading them to enact relevance through concrete practices instead of following pre-determined criteria. We conclude by calling for future research that further explores how relevance is continually reconfigured in response to specific challenges, and how these reconfigurations enable and constrain science’s capacity to address pressing societal needs.