Already Have Collaboration?
Almost all researchers have some form of collaborative relationship. The problem for most people is building this collaboration from a loose, unstructured set of activities to something more concrete, permanent, and fruitful.
If you Google “research collaboration”, you’ll get over 19,000,000 hits, which might be a bit daunting for some. One of the best places to start to understand the dynamics of international collaboration is a report by Caroline Wagner and her colleagues from RAND [full report]. Some of the material below is derived from it.
Types of Collaboration
There are an infinite variety of research collaborations. Some examples are:
- Discussion of ideas
- Formal rejoinders to published works
- Jointly authored publications
- Co-sponsored conferences
- Workshops
- Summer Schools
- Exchange of PhD students
- Sabbaticals and study visits
- Informal research projects
- Data exchange and sharing
- Formalised, funded projects
- Colaboratories
- Invisible colleges
- And so on…
Each can be appropriate for different people at different times. A key question is to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve through the activity.
Processes of Collaboration
The process of building collaboration can take many routes. Some common threads emerge, however, on examination and comparison of many examples:
Each stage generates critical questions for researchers and research managers. Our experience (and that of many others’) is that failure to pay attention to these questions often leads to failure later in the collaboration.
- Understand what you are trying to achieve: is it the generation of new knowledge, or just winning a grant to continue what you are already doing?
- Know who the key actors are, and what they are doing: you may be surprised to find others doing what you want to do
- Spend significant time investigating the possible sources of funding: very few researchers do this effectively
- Read and learn the rules of the funding agencies – international research collaboration requires knowledge you almost inevitably don’t have, but require
- Engage strongly, and continuously, with your colleagues in the countries you work with. Building trust is critical!
