Transcript South-South Research Collaboration

Tracking Academic Collaboration
in the Global South
Academic Consortium 21
International Forum 2010 – Shanghai, China
Dr Christoff Pauw, Coordinator: South-South Networks
Division of Research Development, Stellenbosch University
Tel. +27 21 808 3727, [email protected]
19 October 2010
Problem Statement
• Low global presence of African research output
• Sub-Saharan Africa contributes 0.7% to world science output
(French Académie des Sciences 2006; Worldmapper)
• Not just a challenge of raising the quality and quantity of
scientific output in Africa (and the South), but also raising the
visibility of research in Africa (and the South)
“Today, 20% of [African] researchers who are still active carry out
most of their research outside the walls of academia and traditional
research bodies, usually for international organisations, foreign
intergovernmental bodies and NGOs.”
Schmaus, W. ‘A New Way of Thinking about Social Location in
Science’, Science & Education (2008) 17:1127–1137.
Worldmapper: Science Research
© Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)
Hypothesis: we need more collaboration
• The marginality of science in the South is the
reason for its dwindling share of global research
output
• Marginalisation:
“to be less well-integrated into the social network of scientists, to have
fewer colleagues to whom to turn for feedback, or to have one’s
potential contributions ignored”
• Networks & collaboration:
“important not only for receiving criticism of one’s work, but also ... for
having access to the most recent, unpublished work of other scientists
in one’s field” [and for gaining access to resources/funding]
Schmaus (2008); Wray, K.B. ‘The epistemic significance of
collaborative research’, Philosophy of Science (2002) 69: 150-168.
Why South-South Collaboration?
• Knowledge base dominated by the North
• Blending the best of the South could raise visibility of science
in the south and its participation in global science
• More sensitive to needs of developing countries
• Intuitive grasp of the context as opposed to ready-made
solutions developed in the North
• Pooling of research resources
• Raise critical mass of human, material, financial resources
• [Reversing South Africa’s isolation from the African continent]
• Slow down the Diaspora
• Encourage South-South circulation among regional clusters of
expertise
• Increased mobility opportunities in the South
• AAU Staff Exchange; ACP Intra-mobility; Nyerere Scholarship
Challenges of South-South Collaboration
• Most research collaboration in the South is N-S
• E.g. 2005-2008 only 3% of SADC papers co-authored with
other SADC, 5% with other African countries, and 47% with
high-income countries
• The south is stratified (non-homogenous)
• BRICs vs least developed countries
• SA produced 81% of all SADC papers in 2005-2008
• Peripheral countries’ output is invisible
• Not in ISI/Scopus etc (which is used to calculate above stats)
Boshoff, N., 2009. South–South research collaboration of
countries in the Southern African Development Community
(SADC). Scientometrics [forthcoming].
Guidelines/ethics for S-S collaboration?
Adapt Jacques Gaillard’s (1994) “Charter of North-South Partners”:
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The collaboration should be based on a strong mutual interest and both partners
should have something to gain from it.
Project proposals should be drafted jointly
In particular, decisions on specific instrument purchases should be made jointly
Provision should be made in the budget for a training component
Salaries should be sufficient to ensure full-time commitment, or complemented
by supplementary means (e.g. research honoraria) secured in the budget.
Transparency should be a golden rule between the partners
Each cooperating group should delegate a substantial number of researchers (at
least three).
Both parties should meet regularly to review ongoing work and plan future
activities.
Fast communication channels must be available
Scientific papers should be written jointly, with the names of the authors from
both sides appearing on the published papers.
Collaborative programmes should be evaluated on a regular basis. Monitoring
should emphasize project outputs rather than inputs.
Mechanisms should be established so that the collaboration can continue after
the collaborative programme is terminated to ensure a long lifetime to the
collaborative partnership.
SU Strengthening African Collaboration
• Measures to support African collaboration
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Bilateral exchange agreements with selected universities
Liaison with national and continental role-players
Stellenbosch HOPE Project (launched 2010)
Africa Collaboration Grant (launched 2010)
• Keeping track of south-south collaboration and its
outcomes
• Comprehensive online African collaborations database
• Initiative by Southern African Regional Universities Association
(SARUA) to extend this to other SADC universities
(“borrowing” from one another’s networks)
SU Collaborations Database
• Map/typology of our African networks
• Active countries & institutions
• Fields of study/topics
• Types/models of collaboration (research, teaching,
exchange, etc)
• Management indicator for departments’ Africa partnerships
• Contact information of partners
• Direct dissemination of opportunities and information (mailing
list by discipline/country)
• Enhance networking and exchange on the ground
• Raise visibility of networks and outputs
• Advocacy, support, management of collaboration
• Identify challenges, opportunities, good practices
Database project content
• About the collaboration:
• Project type (research, teaching/training, outreach,
moderation, etc)
• Title, Website, Discipline
• Project content:
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Aim/objective (descriptive)
Method and Sources (descriptive)
Activities/Outputs (incl. publications)
Keywords
• Start date & End date (if any)
• Funding source(s), date(s) awarded and amount(s), if any
• Activity: Active, In planning, Completed, Inactive
Database partner content
• About the collaborators:
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Home partner
SADC partner(s)
Other south-south partner(s)
Any other intl partners (incl donor partners)
Partner information:
• Name, contact details
• Institution, City, Country
• Website
Data as at July 2010
• Projects recorded
• Current and planned projects/partnerships:
(includes 19 in planning phase)
• Successfully completed projects since 2006:
• Inactive/suspended projects since 2006:
• Total African projects recorded:
• Number of African partners involved:
(from 36 countries)
139
53
18
210
363
• Since July 2010: BRIC collaborations also recorded
African Partners (top 14 of 28 countries)
Regional Representation
of partners
Kenya
Botswana
Uganda
Malawi
Nigeria
African Partners per Region
Namibia
Ethiopia
Eastern Africa
Tanzania
Zimbabwe
Southern Africa
Ghana
Zambia
Western Africa
Cameroon
Senegal
Northern Africa
Mozambiq…
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10
20
30
40
50
Middle Africa
0
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50
100
150
Most African partners are located in Eastern and Southern Africa, with Kenya, Botswana and
Uganda collectively comprising 30% of all our African partners.
SADC partners comprise 45% of all African partners
*Southern Africa and SADC exclude SA partners
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Collaboration Types
Projects by Scientific Area
Natural Sciences &
Engineering
Research
Teaching
Moderation/ Examination
Medical & Health
Sciences
Member of Board
Human Sciences
Capacity development
Community Interaction
Institutional Agreement
Projects by Discipline
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Collaboration types show emphasis on
research collaboration, followed by joint
teaching
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Thematic distribution of
programmes/linkages show equal
distribution amongst broad scientific areas
with emphasis on agriculture, humanities/
social sciences and medical sciences
Arts
Humanities
Economic Sciences
Social Sciences
Health Sciences
Medical Sciences: Clinical
Medical Sciences: Basic
Technologies & Applied Sciences
Engineering Sciences
Physical Sciences
Mathematical Sciences
Information & Computer Sciences
Earth & Marine Sciences
Chemical Sciences
Biological Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
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5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Co-publications vs Collaborations
Combined view of SU co-pubs in ISI vs SUCb
(2000-2009)
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35
30
25
20
15
10
5
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Joint projects
Co-publications
African networks: What do we have in place?
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Six Institutional MoU’s (with mobility incentives)
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Links with regional and continental networks
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Makerere University
University of Dar es Salaam
University of Botswana
University of Namibia
KNUST (Ghana)
University of Zimbabwe
Association of African Universities (www.aau.org)
OSSREA (www.ossrea.net) & CODESRIA (www.codesria.org)
ICSU-Africa (www.icsu-africa.org)
ANSTI/UNESCO (www.ansti.org)
African Network for International Education (www.ANIEnetwork.org)
L’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (www.auf.org)
CGIAR Centres (IITA, IFPRI, ILRI, G&D)
Strategic partners
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SA Ministries (DST, DHET, DTI, etc) and High Commissions
NEPAD/AU, SADC, SARUA, AfDB, etc
ACU, IAU, AC21, EAIE, DFID, DAAD, SIDA, NORAD, UNESCO, IMF, etc
Current African Networks
• African research and capacity building initiatives:
• Partnership for Africa’s Next Generation of Academics –
PANGeA (served by the African Doctoral Academy)
• Alliance for Plant Health in Africa (APLHA)
• African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)
• NEPAD Water CoE / Stellenbosch Water Institute
• African Women in Agricultural R&D (AWARD)
• Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance
(SACIDS)
• Quality Network Bio-Diversity in Sub-Sahara Africa
• IMF Institute Training
• Central Analytical Facility training
• UNU-Education for Sustainable Development in Africa
• AU Pan-African University (Space Science Centre)
African Doctoral Academy Training (1)
• Generic Scholarship courses (1-2 days)
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Proposal development
Literature review
Managing the supervisor
Research integrity
Writing and publishing
Academic career etc.
African Doctoral Academy Training (2)
• Research Methodology and Social Theory (1-2 week
elective modules)
1. Theory of research block • philosophy and conceptualisation
of research design
2. Quantitative block • survey methods, sampling theory •
Introductory statistics (with SPSS)
3. Qualitative block • ethnographic, case study and discourse
analytic studies • individual and focus group interviewing
4. Program evaluation block • evaluation theories • designing
evaluation • types of evaluation including impact assessment
5. Advanced quantitative block • experimental & quasiexperimental studies • advanced social statistics
6. Advanced qualitative block • grounded theory & qualitative
analytics • computerised qualitative data analysis (with Atlas/ti)
7. Theories of science block • philosophies and sociology of
science.
African Doctoral Academy Training (3)
• Seminars For Supervisors / Research Managers
1. One-week certificate course for supervisors
2. Two-day seminars on management of postgraduate studies;
engaged scholarship; doctoral studies in Africa, uptake, etc.
• The ADA’s offerings can be structured
• to suit the needs of diverse groups of students and scholars
and may be offered on PANGeA partner campuses when
appropriate.
• Contribution to AC21 International Schooling Programme?
• Next steps for ADA & PANGeA:
• Extend to medical faculty, followed by the rest
• Investigate Joint PhD programmes with PANGeA partners
First (2010) cohort of ADA PhD students
Thank you
Christoff Pauw, Coordinator: South-South Networks
Division of Research Development, Stellenbosch University
Tel. 021 808 3727, [email protected]