Mobilising science to leave no one behind: the importance of equity in research partnerships

Global health, food security, famine prevention, climate change, biodiversity loss, and girls’ education are key transnational challenges. Yet they disproportionately affect populations in the Global South. As we recognise the need for urgent transformative actions and policy changes in the face of these crises, the role of research for development has never been more important. Core to this discussion is the topic of equity in research partnerships. Here, Maggy Heintz, Executive Director of the UK Collaborative on Development Research, looks in depth at the issue of equity in international research partnerships.

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International higher education forum 2024

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Why support research for international development?

There are a wealth of reasons to support research for development, from the moral imperative to do so, to its catalysing effect. One well known example is the research on MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) funded by the UK vaccine network led to the development in record time of the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021. The UK vaccine network supports the development of vaccines and vaccine technology for infectious diseases with the potential to cause an epidemic in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This highlights the value of research funding with respect to aid funding, and how a small amount of research funding in one area can 1) be beneficial and avoid large future spend in a specific development area and 2) have ripple effect beyond the intended initial location.

Funding research, knowledge and learning alongside other aid mechanisms has the potential to increase the impact of aid funding and can have an in-country catalysing effect by 1) leveraging larger international partnerships for greater domestic impact and 2) building capacity for individuals to take on leading roles within their respective governments, in the private sector or in academia.

Research is partnership in action - it needs to be done equitably

Successfully tackling global development challenges requires collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and geographies - as embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

The need to enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms.

SDG17, Target 17.6

In a true transdisciplinary ecosystem, with impact at its core, research brings together scientists, academic institutions, businesses and government. Equity must be central within research partnerships to ensure that research for international development is based on mutual respect - giving leaders, communities, and individuals a voice in shaping the solutions they want to see.

At a meeting of the International Research for Development Funders Forum in partnership with the Science Granting Councils Initiative in 2019, participants characterised equitable research partnerships as:

Exhibiting mutual trust, participation, responsibilities and benefits for all partners, with equal value placed on each partner’s contribution.

ESSENCE and UKCDR 2022

Unfortunately, the global research ecosystem is built upon power imbalances and unequal access. In 2022, the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) and ESSENCE on Health published a Good Practice Document interrogating the meaning of equitable partnerships, outlining enablers and barriers to realising equity in research partnerships and highlighting the changes needed at different levels within the global research ecosystem.

Addressing equity in research partnerships requires a system level approach

The complexity of the research ecosystem and the interrelations between research funding, production and assessment mean that the entire ecosystem needs to rethink the value put on equity. Many of the practical barriers to achieving equity are structural, requiring changes at both the funder and the institutional levels: funding indirect costs, funding time to build relationships, and addressing burdensome due diligences processes.

'Four approaches to supporting equitable research partnerships' provides recommendations from macro to microlevel, to facilitate equity becoming more routinely embedded in research partnerships:

Supporting the research partnership ecosystem

Equity needs to be tackled holistically across the entire research lifecycle with a long-term sustainability mindset. When it comes to leaderships and ownership, power imbalances need to be addressed at the institutional and at the researcher level, ensuring greater involvement of LMIC institutions in policy- and decision-making processes within research programmes and institutional partnership arrangements.

Strengthening research relationships and research systems

Partnership building processes and polices can be improved by increasing awareness of differences in research ecosystems as well as regional discrepancies, language barriers, gender and ethnic inequalities. Knowledge of context is key and having a mutual understanding of Low-and Middle-income (LMICs) political economy, research ecosystems and ways of working will support the two-way learning process and ultimately the co-design, co-creation and co-delivery of mutually beneficial research projects.

Providing ongoing capacity strengthening at the individual, institutional and ecosystem level, and focusing on research management and administration functions, often a crucial area of inequity, is paramount. This needs to be included within research capacity strengthening approaches and requires a coordinated approach from research funders to drive change.

Budgeting for partnership building

The way research is funded is also often a source of power imbalances and inequity. Redressing the balance can be achieved by requiring evidence of equitable partnerships in grant awards and conditions, providing funding mechanisms to support time and resources for equitable partnership development and co-creation processes, and directing funding to Southern researchers and institutions to enable them to lead multi-country research consortia and projects.

Implementing processes and procedures that sustain partnerships

Last but not least, the processes and procedures supporting research can be burdensome and very jargon specific, resulting in lack of comprehension and equity between partners. A way to address this imbalance is to be mindful of streamlining contracting processes, highlighting different institutional capacities and needs, differences in partners requirements when it comes to funding flows, due diligence, IP rights and overall administrative burden.

The benefits of working equitably – why partnerships are important

When partnerships are done right, they have the potential to maximise the impact of research. Examples from UKCDR’s most recent publication highlight the ripple effect of research for development and how international development research, done in partnership, can achieve impact in both LMICs (primary benefits) and in the UK and/or around the world (secondary benefits).

We highlighted 7 case studies showing clear primary intent that contributes to political, economic, social, health or environmental changes. Benefits include introducing alternative education models, supporting the social transformation of vulnerable communities, tackling modern slavery or developing better models for climate change mitigation. Having achieved the primary intent of these projects, UK-based researchers and their partners later applied project insights to the UK and other international contexts, leading to improved children education, improving social and healthcare services for disadvantaged communities and changing policies to reduce carbon emissions.

Building the next generation of researchers

One session at IHEF2024 invites reflection on how international collaboration works. In building the next generation of researchers, one has to bear in mind the importance of a two-way learning system and the value we place on equity.

Equitable research partnerships help support research agendas relevant to affected communities, support research system strengthening, and allow diverse knowledges and experiences to inform solutions.  Attention is now directed on implementation: having talked the talk, how can we now walk the walk?

While a systemic change is needed, change starts with actions at a range of different levels, and everyone has a part to play in it.

Maggy's colleague, Anisa Muzaffar, will be one our panel for the International Higher Education Forum 2024 session 'Equity in international research partnerships' on 1 May 2024. You can join us at IHEF2024 here.