Kennisdeling in het hoger onderwijs: Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de ervaringen van onderzoekers binnen hun kleine onderzoeksteam

Within higher education, internal knowledge sharing is gaining importance to enhance the quality of research, teaching, and societal impact. As collaboration in teams becomes increasingly common, researchers play a key role in these processes. At the same time, little is known about what fosters or hinders knowledge sharing within such teams. This study explores this issue from the perspective of researchers, based on qualitative research. Fourteen researchers from six small teams within the same institute were interviewed, where the working environment was also mapped out in advance. The findings were analyzed using the star model, which consists of the elements strategy, structure, process, rewards, and people. This model offers a framework for systematically mapping various influencing factors. For each element, both enabling and constraining factors were identified. The ‘people’ element appears to play a central role in the willingness to share knowledge, with trust and psychological safety emerging as essential conditions. In addition, the study shows that enabling factors within one element often relate to those in others. For example, a safe and trusting environment often goes hand in hand with a horizontal structure that allows for equitable collaboration. These insights provide concrete guidance for developing team-level strategies that strengthen knowledge sharing within research groups.