Sign up for e-news
RSS News feed
Contact Us
Follow UsWe're still learning when it comes to international collaboration
Kate O’Shea, Deputy Director for the UK Collaborative on Development Sciences shares her thoughts on a recent report looking at international research cooperation.
“The OECD’s Global Science Forum has recently published a report entitled 'Opportunities, Challenges and Good Practices in International Research Cooperation' (PDF 3601KB). Having been involved in the process, these are my personal thoughts on the report:
The background
This initiative came out of a Japanese request for the Forum to explore good practice in research collaborations between developing and industrialised countries. The Forum agreed and an International Experts Group was established, on which I was nominated to sit. Those leading the project started by asking us to provide examples of programmes in our countries funding research collaboration with developing countries. I think the UK is pretty good at this and I wasn’t at a loss to select three programmes as asked for (in fact I submitted four). I am by no means saying we are perfect – I still think we have plenty to learn about how we encourage and support collaborations that are mutually beneficial and effectively achieve the multiple objectives we often set for them. I just think we are one of the better industrialised countries in terms of our approach to it.
The people who actually did the work for the project came to the UK and interviewed some of the people involved in the programmes we had put forward:
- BBSRC/DFID Joint Scheme Sustainable Agriculture Research for International Development
- ESRC/DFID Joint Schemce for Research on International Development (Poverty Alleviation)
- Wellcome Trust’s African Institutions Initiative
- British Council managed DeLPHE programme.
The report
The report has now been published (the wheels at OECD might turn quite slowly, but that’s not unusual) and what do I think about it?
Well, apart from the unimaginative format, I think the content is pretty good. In all honesty, it doesn’t say anything radically new, although I am not sure there is anything radically new it could have said, but I think it will be useful for people starting to work in this area and countries beginning to expand what they do. It does well on buzz word bingo, with the important ones like ‘capacity building’ and ‘co-ownership’ in there, although I would liked to have seen more about ‘sustainability’, which is mentioned but not really given the full consideration needed. It provides a ‘tool kit’ for people starting to think about developing research programmes aimed at funding collaborative research for development impact, although I would say its more a check list. The authors emphasise that these are not prescriptive instructions, but principles and options to consider. This covers ‘designing programmes’, ’reviewing and selecting project proposals, ’utilising and evaluating the outcomes of project’ and a few others.
It is, of course, diplomatic in its language but does hint at some of the bigger issues that need to be grappled with. For example, “it may well be the case that the development priorities of the [industrialised countries] are significantly different than those of the [developing countries] and, hence, that their motivations for pursuing a certain line of research are quite distinct.” It suggests that “this by itself need not prevent a successful collaboration, as long as each side understands and appreciates the point of view of the other.” Whilst this may be true in some cases, I would suggest that it can cause trouble and result in a programme that does not really satisfy anyone. Common objectives in collaborations is certainly a factor for success.
One thing I think it misses is highlighting that funders should first and foremost aim to “do no harm”, it does not explore that fact that good intentions are not enough. However, when discussing research capacity building and what can be done to enable this, it importantly recognises “ultimately, success in capacity building will require many years of effort before it produces measurable results. It should be adapted to the particular needs of each country and therefore should be primarily a national responsibility, recognised as a priority by the national government, and linked to the development of an effective national science and innovation system.” Unfortunately I am not sure this is something most of us in the UK have fully comprehended or integrated into our approach yet.”
You can contact Kate either by email or on twitter @UKCDS.
