Rethinking Research Partnerships: Evidence and the Politics of Participation in Cross-Sectoral Research Collaborations

Abstract
Research partnerships between academics and international NGOs have significant potential to improve the nature of evidence for international development. However, this potential is limited by challenges including divergent priorities, schedules and capacity, knowledge hierarchies and power relations. Central to many of these are conflicts between the ways that ‘evidence’ is conceived and used in research partnerships and the implications for who participates and how.

Over the course of a two-year ESRC-funded seminar series (involving the collaborative analysis of seven case studies), an iterative framework was developed for understanding the relationship between evidence and participation in research partnerships. This has implications for understanding the broader political economy of evidence for international development as well as the more specific ways that institutions like universities and NGOs might support better practice in partnership.