Most scientific institutions acknowledge the importance of opening the
so-called 'ivory tower' of academic research through popularization, industrial
collaboration or teaching. However, little is known about the actual openness
of scientific institutions and how their proclaimed priorities translate into
concrete measures. This paper gives an idea of some actual practices by
studying three key points: the proportion of researchers who are active in
wider dissemination, the academic productivity of these scientists, and the
institutional recognition of their wider dissemination activities in terms of
their careers. We analyze extensive data about the academic production, career
recognition and teaching or public/industrial outreach of several thousand of
scientists, from many disciplines, from France's Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique. We find that, contrary to what is often suggested,
scientists active in wider dissemination are also more active academically.
However, their dissemination activities have almost no impact (positive or
negative) on their careers