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This Guide supports research partners to develop ethically sound, efficient and effective partnerships.

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Global research partnerships are collaborations across geographical and academic boundaries that build bridges for advancing knowledge and sustainable development.

Global research partnerships enhance the quality and impact of sciences in a globally connected and rapidly transforming world. Equitable partnerships enable the combination of varied perspectives and priorities as well as the pooling of competences and resources.

This guide supports research partners in developing effective, equitable, and impactful partnerships. It presents six principles specifically designed to enhance collaboration across different contexts. It also stimulates reflection on how to address a range of challenges when working in such research partnerships.

The guide provides a flexible framework for orientation. It contains elements that can be applied and adapted according to the specific context and form of collaboration. All principles are interconnected and can be addressed in any order. While the guide specifically aims to strengthen global research partnerships, the principles can also be applied to global teaching partnerships.

The GRP Alliance offers customised workshops and courses on effective and equitable Global Research Partnerships. Led by experienced experts, they can be delivered at your organisation or at an event. These workshops provide an opportunity to reflect on equitable collaboration and the practical application of the Guide for Global Research Partnerships, and facilitate peer-to-peer exchange. We offer these workshops free of charge to our member organisations.

Contact us to plan a workshop at your organisation or event:

6 Principles for more effective and equitable research

Principle 1: Set the agenda together
to ensure relevance and shared ownership.

  • Identify and involve stakeholders and project partners from the outset.
  • Define the common goal and research approach jointly.
  • Clarify and manage different objectives and expectations.

Principle 2: Manage power dynamics
to promote equity and diversity.

  • Acknowledge different contexts and positions.
  • Address power imbalances.
  • Co-chair decision-making processes.

Principle 3: Specify roles and responsibilities
to ensure alignment, transparency, and accountability.

  • Understand roles and assign responsibilities jointly.
  • Share resources and merits transparently and fairly.
  • Adapt collaboration to changing circumstances.

Principle 4: Promote mutual learning
to strengthen competences and advance knowledge.

  • Respect and engage with different forms of knowledge.
  • Promote peer learning and career development.
  • Acknowledge the contributions of all partners.

Principle 5: Share and apply results
to create impact.

  • Collaborate with the relevant actors in an inter- and transdisciplinary way.
  • Plan context-specific, scalable, and academic outputs proactively.
  • Publish results accessibly and tailored to the target audience.

Principle 6: Build long-term partnerships
to grow an active community of knowledge and practice.

  • Consolidate partnerships through continuous and trust-based collaboration.
  • Establish new partnerships and networks across boundaries.
  • Interact regularly and engage in joint activities.

Further literature and resources

Aboderin I, Fuh D, Balcha Gebremariam E, Segalo P (2023). Beyond ‘equitable partnerships’: the imperative of transformative research collaborations with Africa. Global Social Challenges Journal, 2(2), 212-228.

Africa charter on transformative research collaborations

Bradley M (2007) North-South Research Partnerships: Challenges, Responses and Trends—A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. Working Paper 1, IDRC Canadian Partnerships Working Paper Series. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre

Carbonnier, G. and Kontinen, T. (2015) Institutional Learning in North-South Research Partnerships. Revue Tiers Monde, No 221(1), 149-162.

Haelewaters D, Hofmann TA, Romero-Olivares AL (2021) Ten simple rules for Global North researchers to stop perpetuating helicopter research in the Global South. PLoS Comput Biol 17(8)

Hall B, Tandon R, Tremblay C (2015) Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: Global Perspectives. Published by: University of Victoria Libraries

Horton, D, Prain, G. and Thiele, G. 2009. Perspectives on partnership: A literature review. International Potato Center (CIP), Lima, Peru. Working Paper 2009-3. 111

Landau L (2012) Communities of Knowledge or Tyrannies of Partnership: Reflections on North–South Research Networks and the Dual Imperative. Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 25, No. 4

Lepore W, Hall B.L, Tandon R (2024) Bridging Knowledge Cultures Rebalancing Power in the Co-Construction of Knowledge

Lepore W, Hall B. L, Tandon R (2020) The Knowledge for Change Consortium: a decolonising approach to international collaboration in capacity-building in community-based participatory research. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue Canadienne d’études Du Développement, 42(3), 347–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2020.1838887

National Institute for Health and Care Research (2021) Equitable Partnerships Guide.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2011) Global Science Forum Report on Opportunities, Challenges and Good Practices in International Research Cooperation between Developed and Developing Countries.

Orr D. et al. (2019b) Safeguarding in International Development Research: Evidence Review, p 34.

Oyewole K.A, Karn S, Classen J, Yurkofsky M (2023) Equitable Research-Practice Partnerships: A Multilevel Reimagining.

Pathways to impactful and equitable partnerships in Research for Development: A co-created, action-learning initiative. Institute of Development Studies.

Rakotonarivo O.S, Andriamihaja O.R (2023) Global North–Global South research partnerships are still inequitable. Nat Hum Behav 7, 2042–2043

Research Fairness Initiative. Cohred RFI.

Sustainable Futures. A Critical Resource for Ethical International Partnerships. DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/DJTN4.

TRUST (2018) The TRUST Code - A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships.

The Rethinking Research Collaborative (RRC) (2018) Promoting fair and equitable research partnerships to respond to global challenges. Research findings

UKCDR & ESSENCE: Equitable Partnerships Resources Hub.

Villacis Izquierdo G, Lusambya D, Bayu T (2022) North-South* research collaborations: the quest for equitable partnerships.

Voller S, Schellenberg J, Chi P, Thorogood N (2022) What makes working together work? A scoping review of the guidance on North–South research partnerships, Health Policy and Planning, Volume 37, Issue 4, April 2022, Pages 523–534

Contact

SCNAT
Swiss Alliance for Global Research Partnerships (GRP-Alliance)
House of Academies
PO Box
3001 Bern
Switzerland


This guide was developed by the Swiss Alliance for Global Research Partnerships (GRP Alliance) of SCNAT with the support of 200 researchers and practitioners from around the world.

The GRP Alliance is a coalition of leading Swiss institutions involved in global research and teaching partnerships.

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