This project contributes to a pragmatic, normative epistemology of science for society (‘S4S’) that explains (i) how knowledge can be both scientific and useable for real-world problem-solving, and (ii) provides practical guidance for developing scientific, useable knowledge. The need for such a theory is clearly present in society, where the use of scientific knowledge for real-world problem-solving has led to disappointing results, as well as in science, where researchers indicate to lack clear guidelines for producing societally relevant results. Concretely, the project is aimed at developing an epistemological theory of science for agriculture (‘S4A’). Here, ‘S4A’ refers to research where scientists collaborate with technologists and practice experts to develop knowledge that can be used to address real-world problems in agriculture. The theory consists of an epistemic and a pragmatic normative framework, and guidelines for collaborating scientists, technologists and practice on how to design their research so the results will be both scientific and useable. The theory builds on available explanations for why science cannot provide straightforward solutions for real-world problems as well as existing strategies for science for society. It is developed by means of methods from applied philosophy of science and digital humanities (viz. term extraction, co-occurrence analysis), combined with traditional, philosophical conceptual analysis and engineering.