DSA UK

1
DSA UK 3rd November 2012 What Constitutes
Effective Research Capacity Building? Lessons
emerging from a national-level initiative
involving Irish HEIs.
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Introduction

• Speakers
• Prof Ronnie Munck, Dublin City University
• Mr Peter McEvoy, Dublin City University
• Ms Arleen Folan, Dundalk Institute of Technology
• Dr Ogenna Uduma, Trinity College Dublin

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Irish African Partnershipfor Research Capacity
Building IAP
Harnessing Knowledge for
Poverty Reduction
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IAP offshoot of Universities
Irelandapex-level body of 11 institutions

• Contribution of IAP
• Internationalisation strategies more aligned
  with development thinking
• Contributed visibly to social responsibility
  profile of universities
• Added value to the work of individual
  universities by working at Ireland Inc level
• Connected science and innovation, learning and
  teaching and research in the service of
  development

DkIT DIT
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IAP Project Aims

• To build individual institutional capacity in
  development-responsive research in the Irish
  universities
• To build capacity in health, education, gender
  and ICT research with the four partner African
  universities
• In the longer term, to develop an
  inter-institutional Irish-African development
  research capacity platform

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IAP Project Philosophy

• RCB contributing to poverty reduction and the
  MDGs
• as decision-making becomes more
  knowledge-intensive, Higher Education has a vital
  role to play - alongside government and wider
  civil society - in promoting human development
• Global Sustainable Development requires full
  participation by Africa in the knowledge
  society
• HEIs as generators of evidence-based research,
  policy advice and training relevant to
  development agenda
• HEIs strengthen civil society and reflective
  public policy networking with local communities
  and NGOs.

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Products of IAP

• Stakeholder Consultation Report on current status
  of development research capacity in Irish and
  African partner universities
• Foresight analysis of health and education needs
  
• Metrics package for Research Capacity Building
• Webportal for community of practice in
  international development
• Regional residential workshops on research
  management (Malawi 2010 and Dar es Salaam 2011)
• Publication of a research capacity building
  manual and a series of academic articles (e.g.
  published by EUA)

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Factors conducive to institutional-level Research
Capacity Building 1

• Development of an embedded and socially-responsive
  research culture in HEIs, recognising the
  contribution of research to effective teaching,
  learning and civic engagement
• The establishment and effective functioning of a
  Research Office to take research from
  conceptualisation through to dissemination, and
  manage the research process across the
  institution
• Increased activity of international North-South
  and South-South partnerships and networking
• The development of effective research
  infrastructure, in particular electronic
  connectivity facilitating on-line access to
  global research and publications databases
• Enhanced research training, in particular through
  more and better structured modalities of
  postgraduate formation and stronger foundation in
  research methods (quantitative, qualitative,
  critical thinking) and cross disciplinary
  collaboration

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Factors conducive to institutional-level Research
Capacity Building 2

• Increased research funding, and more
  diversified sources of research grants.
• N-S co-authorship of research publications, in
  particular in peer-reviewed journals but also in
  policy-relevant outlets
• An increase in the number of women entering and
  remaining in research careers with clear support
  mechanisms to do so along with learning
  innovation and civic engagement missions
• A well developed process of dissemination of
  research findings, in particular through linkages
  with evidence based development policy and
  practice
• Greater emphasis on the need to relate research
  to major global challenges - poverty reduction,
  better quality of life and resilience to climate
  change.

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What now?....

• Even though funding expired, IAP continues as an
  inter-institutional network, focused on RCB
• Learning is being disseminated into
• New phase of Irish Aid Programme of Strategic
  Cooperation
• EU-Africa DocLinks project funded by Erasmus
  Mundus
• Encourage university sector and development
  sector unifying initiatives, such as DSA Ireland
• Brain Retain - distance mentoring of research
  students / early career researchers in Africa
• www.irishafricanpartnership.ie

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Water is Life

• Funded by Irish Aid/HEA Programme for Strategic
  Co-operation
• Goal of this programme
• to build research capacity in Ireland and Africa
  in relation to safe and sustainable water
  provision in Africa
• Water is Life - 5 year programme - 2009 to 2014
• Large numbers of partners - both Southern and
  Northern

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Key activities

• Develop appropriate activities in the area of
  water resource sustainability monitor its
  effects on community health, gender poverty
  through a combination of 8 PhD research projects
  community engagement
• Support research with a water-centred focus
• Examine water sourcing, distribution
  sanitation
• Assess impact on community health gender
• Engage community interest support
• Generation and provision of an appropriate GIS
  database and,
• Ultimately inform a jointly developed taught
  Masters degree programme (Ireland/Uganda).

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Key features

• Inter / Intra institutional
• Multi- / Trans-disciplinary
• Research in the field
• Multiple levels of engagement
• academic, state, community and policy influencers
• Top-down and bottom-up approach
• Focus on policy implementation - from practice to
  policy

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Water is Life embodies coordination across all
levels of disciplines
Water is Life approach
produce sound and societally relevant
research through active collaboration
capacity building promote strong N-S
partnerships provide evidence for decision
making engagement policy dialogue
education adaptive management technology
advances hydrology anthropology health
science engineering geography sociology
political science
What should we do? How to do what we want to do?
What we want to do
What we are capable of doing
What exists
adapted from MaxNeef (2005)
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WIL - tangible outcomes

• Doctoral training (collaborative approach)
• 8 African researchers
• Production of joint N-S Masters
• Cert. in Sustainable Water Management
• Publications
• Journal articles (at least 10)
• Project book
• Spatial database
• Policy briefs
• International /national colloquia / conference
  presentations
• Ongoing public engagement / community training

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Project schedule
Ongoing collaboration and dissemination
Feb 2010
Nov 2010
Aug 2012
Jan 2010
Dec 2011
Nov 2012
Student recruitment
Student initiation training (Ireland)
1st WIL workshop (Uganda)
Research-informed module development for joint
N-S Masters
External WIL mid-term review
2nd WIL workshop (Ireland)

• Cert. in Sust. Water Management
• Agreed work plans
• Identification of cross-cutting themes
• Cementing of partnerships

• Ongoing production of spatial
  database
• Collation and analysis of localised health
  database
• Student fieldwork ongoing
• Collaborative supervision
• Various conference presentations
• Production of peer reviewed papers

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Learning to date
Challenge WIL response
Ensuring partner and stakeholder buy-in (including supervisory arrangements) Set the agenda together including defined roles and responsibilities Determine most appropriate channels/methods of communication for each stakeholder group at an early stage Monitor commitment (accountability) Agree on an MOU and a strategic plan
Ensure mutual learning Acknowledge cultural backgrounds of all partners involved Shared ownership of all outcomes Promote platforms for exchange of outcomes - appropriate to stakeholder groups Direct exposure of North and South participants to broad range of partner expertise
PhD completion North and South supervisory arrangements (joint supervision) Frequent supervisory visits Realistic stipends and travel allowances (rate per country) 4 year completion targets
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Learning to date
Challenge WIL response
Effective implemetation of research results Ensure societal relevance (initial goal) Ongoing dialogue - academic, community, policy level, etc. Speak the language of the end-user
Sustainability and legacy Prevention of brain-drain Enhanced visibility of Southern academic partners through impact peer-reviewed publications Creation and expansion of networks within the network Plan a future sequence of projects from these alliances Provision of robust research findings that can inform decision-making for the future benefit of the end-users (rural Ugandan communities)
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Strengthening higher education in and for
Africa

• Collaborative delivery with African partners of
  doctoral training focussed on students based in
  Africa
• Raising awareness and building development skills
  of Ireland-based doctoral students
• Analysis, evaluation and communication managed by
  a new institutional platform for development
• Co-funded by Irish Aid under the Programme for
  Strategic Cooperation between Irish Aid and
  Higher Education and Research Institutes 2007-11.

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Three partnership models

• Multilateral Indigo International Doctorate in
  Global Health
• Bilateral TCD and Makerere University
  (Environment and Medicine). One co-registered
  doctoral student from Makerere in the field of
  wetlands and climate change.
• Africa-led African Economics Research
  Consortium (AERC) . TCD Teaching in the CPP.

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Current status

• Multilateral
• 12 Indigo students now registered at TCD (6
  funded by Irish Aid) from Ethiopia, Malawi,
  Uganda, Nigerian, Finland, Sudan, Ireland, Canada
  and United States.
• Bilateral
• One student currently in his fourth year in
  Makarere and visiting TCD in September.
• AERC
• Two students currently in their fourth year. TCD
  staff contributing in the CPP

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Review

• Semi- structured interviews with all partners,
  supervisors and students in all model.
• Multilateral 37, bilateral 5, African-led 11 and
  11 Externals
• SWOT Analysis

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African - led SWOT
Strengths Good partnership model Strengthens economics training in local universities in Africa Contributes to capacity building and economic development in Africa CPP Biannual conference Cost effective Weaknesses   Funding structure AERC strong emphasis on the course work (CPP) and not on the overall research process Non Standardisation of PhD Lack of adequate Infrastructure
Opportunities Unmet demand for PhD in the South due to lack of resources Building on collaborative networks Knowledge exchange Threats   Current Financial climate Enabling environment High management costs
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Bilateral SWOT
Strengths Equitable partnership structure Supervision Model Student Centred Cost effective and a good sandwich programme Weaknesses Limited capacity of the programme Nature, timing and planning of the sandwich programme  
Opportunities   Scale up and broaden the programme Threats   Small scale of the programme Funding
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Multilateral SWOT
Strengths   Innovative nature of the programme Sandwich nature of the programme Capacity building element of the programme Programme design and structure Weaknesses   Institutional Challenges Managing partners and expectations Financial Constraints Programme design and structure
Opportunities   Need to build health research capacity in the South Focus on Southern led initiatives and joint partnerships Threats   Funding and research infrastructure Building and maintaining equitable partnerships
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Recommendations

• The needs, motivations, and expectations of each
  of the groups involved in this type of programme
  should be articulated and attended to from the
  start.
• The systems within which the programmes are being
  established should also be understood and
  articulated including constraints and resources
  available.
• The added value of participating in a network,
  particularly an international network, beyond the
  individual student and supervisor was emphasised
  by participants across all models .
• The selection of students, supervisors and
  research topics are crucial stages and should be
  considered carefully.
• The selection of junior staff members who have
  existing positions in Southern universities to
  participate in PhD programmes is aligned with
  core objectives of research capacity building.

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Recommendations contd.

• The objectives of the programme should help
  determine the degree of input individual
  supervisors, students and a wider advisory group
  should have to the topic.
• Research topics should match the particular
  objectives of the programme.
• Good project planning and communication is
  crucial to the success of the programme
  throughout.
• All partners should be involved in the earliest
  stages of planning to build the foundation for
  equal partnership.
• Each of the models of partnership builds capacity
  and is a worthwhile investment in the development
  of African education systems.
• Continued investment is recommended.

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Overall conclusions

• What do we mean by partnership over and above the
  rhetoric?
• How does higher education feed into
  socio-economic development and poverty reduction
  in practice?
• Who sets the development research agenda and
  decides on priorities?
• Is the Northern/Western model of higher education
  relevant/replicable in  Sub Saharan Africa?
• Is there an 'Irish' model of research capacity
  building?

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Thank you