Promote mutual learning

Global partnerships bring together people and institutions with diverse expertise and experience, all shaped by specific traditions and embedded in various social, economic, and political contexts. It is essential to establish a learning culture that recognizes, values, and includes different knowledge traditions. These forms of knowledge include different academic disciplines, non-academic expertise, and knowledge derived from practical action and lived experiences. Such traditions are often based on knowledge systems that are not rooted in the dominant Western epistemologies – such as Indigenous knowledge. Respecting and engaging with these different forms of knowledge is essential for reducing hierarchies between them (see also P2). Recognizing and valuing diverse knowledge also fosters continuous mutual learning, incorporates different perspectives, and ensures the relevance of research across different contexts (see also P5).

Further ressources:

Global partnerships provide a unique opportunity to expose partners to different forms of knowledge. Such partnerships also stimulate dialogue between different perspectives, values, and knowledge systems, and they facilitate mutual learning. Rather than having each partner contribute their specific perspective to a centralized synthesis, for example, it is preferable to encourage partners to exchange, learn from each other, and reflect on their own perspectives and epistemological biases. To foster mutual learning, it is essential to proactively recognize the positions of all parties and intensify areas of commonality to generate shared norms.

Tool:

Contribute to strengthening the competences of all partners. Create opportunities for junior and early career researchers to join and engage in coaching, exchange, and mentorship programmes. Enable networking for peer learning during workshops and conferences. To strengthen knowledge and practical know-how, capacity-building initiatives should integrate practice-oriented, methodological, and reflexive components. Ask all participants about their specific capacity strengthening needs. For large-scale projects or programmes, consider formalizing these efforts by creating a capacity development plan.

In-depth:

Further ressource:

Research partnerships can provide a unique platform for formal career development by offering the possibility to pursue a Master’s, PhD, or postdoctoral programme. Beyond formal degrees, authorship (see next point) and specific positions within a project can act as crucial stepping-stones to boost individual careers. Though formal career advancement may not be the primary goal of a research partnership, producing the next generation of highly trained global researchers, administrators, or political leaders can be an important co-product, alongside academic, context specific, and scalable impact. Moreover, the opportunity to receive a formal degree can significantly increase individual motivation to participate in a collaboration. However, to benefit both individuals and the project, the requirements for formal career advancement must be well-balanced with the project’s strategic needs.

Further ressources:

Acknowledge the contributions of all partners, individuals, and institutions, for example in project descriptions, on publications, or in evaluations. Guarantee opportunities for all partners to present and use their findings. This includes authorship attribution and the selection of publication channels that consider different interests (see P3, P5). Not all forms of acknowledgement are equally valued by every partner – for example, authorship of a publication may be of varying significance. Discuss which form of acknowledgement is most valuable to each party.

Tool:

Global collaborations can contribute to strengthening the involved institutions, in both the Global North and the Global South. Partnerships can also contribute to enhancing institutions’ academic and organizational capacities, such as by advancing physical research infrastructure (e.g. better laboratory facilities) and providing new opportunities for teaching exchange, as well as fostering competences in managing research grants and large projects. Nonetheless, it is important to consider potential reputational risks for participating institutions (see P1, “Identify and mitigate potential risks”). Discuss with representatives of the involved institutions how a collaboration can help strengthen them.

In-depth:

Further ressource:

As part of different academic systems, research partnerships contribute to shaping these systems, both passively and actively. Discuss how your partnership can actively contribute, albeit perhaps with limited impact, to shaping open, inclusive, and impactful global research systems. This can include careful selection of publication channels (see also P5, “Promote Open Access and Open Science”).

In-depth:

Further ressources: