Abstract
BackgroundResearch capacity building and its impact on policy and international research partnership is increasingly seen as important. High income and low- and middle-income countries frequently engage in research collaborations. These can have a positive impact on research capacity building, provided such partnerships are long-term collaborations with a unified aim, but they can also have challenges. What are these challenges, which often result in a short term/ non viable collaboration? Does such collaboration results in capacity building? What are the requirements to make any collaboration sustainable? This study aimed to answer these and other research questions through examining an international collaboration in one multi-country research capacity building project ARCADE RSDH (Asian Regional Capacity Development for Research on Social Determinants of Health).MethodA qualitative study was conducted that focused on the reasons for the collaboration, collaboration patterns involved, processes of exchanging information, barriers faced and perceived growth in research capacity. In-depth interviews were conducted with the principal investigators (n = 12), research assistants (n = 2) and a scientific coordinator (n = 1) of the collaborating institutes. Data were analysed using thematic framework analysis.ResultsThe initial contact between institutes was through previous collaborations. The collaboration was affected by the organisational structure of the partner institutes, political influences and the collaboration design. Communication was usually conducted online, which was affected by differences in time and language and inefficient infrastructure. Limited funding resulted in restricted engagement by some partners.ConclusionThis study explored work in a large, North-South collaboration project focusing on building research capacity in partner institutes. The project helped strengthen research capacity, though differences in organization types, existing research capacity, culture, time, and language acted as obstacles to the success of the project. Managing these differences requires preplanned strategies to develop functional communication channels among the partners, maintaining transparency, and sharing the rewards and benefits at all stages of collaboration.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-016-0132-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Research capacity building and its impact on policy and international research partnership is increasingly seen as important
Health research capacity can contribute to overall health system development of any country, in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs), where there is less capacity in research [1, 2]
Facilitating collaboration between developed and developing counterparts [15] could result in higher research outputs from LMICs [16, 17]
Summary
Research capacity building and its impact on policy and international research partnership is increasingly seen as important. High income and low- and middle-income countries frequently engage in research collaborations These can have a positive impact on research capacity building, provided such partnerships are long-term collaborations with a unified aim, but they can have challenges. What are these challenges, which often result in a short term/ non viable collaboration? Facilitating collaboration between developed and developing counterparts [15] could result in higher research outputs from LMICs [16, 17] To this end, organisations, such as the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) in 2003, were created at the global level to work directly with governments in LMICs to promote national and international collaborations [18]. Barriers to successful collaboration include, amongst others, aims that are not shared, unequal distribution of power, lack of trust, ineffective membership structures and poor leadership [22]
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