LAUSR

Research partnerships between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and medium-income countries (LMICs) often display a set of asymmetries that hinder the development of science, technology and health systems in the LMICs. In practice, this means that research partnerships, instead of addressing local priorities, often result in the appropriation of local data, the relegation of southern scientists to the category of ‘field experts’, the publication of research papers in high-impact journals without LMIC partners as coauthors and the tokenisation of LMIC partners and institutions to obtain competitive funding.1 2 There are numerous studies on power imbalances pertaining to research partnerships, often calling for general or specific interventions to improve them, but without apparent actual change in practice.3–5 Over the past 20 years, only two explicit guidelines have been developed to tackle these imbalances. The Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR) developed a set of recommendations, focused on six main principles, to promote ethical partnerships, including the use of innovative methodologies.6 The Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE)7 has also advocated the use of 11 principles which deal with a wide range of issues, from agenda setting to dissemination. The work of KFPE is 20 years old, but it is not well known outside Switzerland; moreover, it does not provide a practical framework to assess how these principles are implemented in research projects and actual collaborations. Other agencies involved in the advocacy of ethical research partnerships include the United States Agency for International Development, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Development Research Centre (Canada) and the Norwegian Programme for Development, Research and Education (NUFU).8 The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 is focused on partnerships as means to achieve the other SDGs, recognising that joint research in health and other fields is essential. …