This paper reports results from a survey of academic social scientists in Australian universities on their research engagement experience with industry and government partners and end-users of research. The results highlight that while academics report a range of benefits arising from research collaborations, there are also significant impediments to research translation and uptake, including organisational processes within universities. Using the scale of research utilisation, we examine research transfer and uptake and explore a range of variables to understand factors influencing the use of academic social science research by policy makers and practitioners.