How to embed and sustain project-initiated improvements in research capacity: good practice recommendations

英国政府致力于帮助发展中国家制定自己的解决方案，以应对它们面临的挑战，而不是试图采用其他地方可能不合适的解决方案。如果发展中国家能够进行高质量的研究，它们将能够制定基于证据的政策和实践，改善人力资本，生产有利于穷人的产品/技术，所有这些都将加速社会和经济发展。发展中国家更强的研究技能、系统、基础设施和治理（即研究能力）也将有利于英国的国家利益，因为贫困、移民和流行病虽然集中在发展中国家，但影响全球。英国在支持发展中国家加强其研究和创新能力方面处于世界领先地位。近年来，国际发展捐助者和各国政府加强了在加强研究能力方面的支出，这现已成为国际发展援助的基石。然而，非洲在全球研究能力方面尤其落后——1999-2008年，非洲国家每年发表2.7万篇论文，与荷兰的数量大致相同。15亿英镑的GCRF支持英国和发展中国家机构之间的大型合作项目。这些项目中有许多直接或间接有助于加强它们在发展中国家的伙伴机构的研究能力，例如通过引进研究技能课程、购买设备和促进网络。然而，由于这些能力改进没有制度化或长期持续，这些努力大部分都被浪费了。这是因为变革的制度化并不是该项目的主要目的，而可持续性可能需要数十年才能实现。在第一阶段，我们将确定GCRF和其他涵盖不同研究学科的英国资助项目所使用的策略。我们将首先通过一项调查收集数据，了解这些项目在研究能力方面取得了哪些成果，以及这些成果是否以及如何制度化、获得资助和维持。通过我们的集群成员，我们将从至少20个非洲国家（包括许多最贫穷的国家）的大约100个这些项目的伙伴机构获取信息。这将提供关于已经开始的研究能力变化的信息。为了找出这些变化发生的原因和方式，为什么一些成功而另一些没有，并了解不同的背景如何影响吸收、融资和可持续性，我们将对非洲和英国的一系列关键研究人员、研究经理、发展资助者和高级大学官员进行深入采访。我们会检视各项目的年度报告及评估，以核实我们的调查结果。所有这些信息都将使用一个完善的框架进行整理，该框架包含了一个机构实现世界级研究能力所需的所有组成部分。从这些信息中，我们将产生关于通过项目启动的研究能力加强变化的基线数据，这些变化是共同的，独立于研究学科。这些将伴随着关于如何以及为什么这些变化已经或没有制度化或持续的教训和经验。我们将制定关于战略的指导方针草案，这些战略可以促进项目发起的研究能力改进的吸收和持久性，包括如何促进研究机会和职业的公平，这些将在后续项目中进行测试。我们集群的成员包括研究人员、研究经理、资助机构、一个非政府组织和一个具有广泛号召力的非洲研究“智库”。该项目将由利物浦热带医学院的能力研究中心领导。

The UK government is committed to helping developing countries create their own solutions to the challenges they face rather than trying to adopt potentially inappropriate solutions from elsewhere. If developing countries are able to conduct high-quality research, they will be able to develop evidence-informed policy and practice, improve human capital and produce pro-poor products/technologies, all of which will accelerate social and economic development. Stronger research skills, systems, infrastructure and governance (i.e. research capacity) in developing countries will also benefit the UK national interest since poverty, migration, and epidemics, while concentrated in developing countries, impact globally. The UK is a world leader in supporting developing countries to strengthen their capacity for research and innovation. In recent years international development donors and governments have strengthened their spending on research capacity strengthening which has now become a cornerstone of international development assistance. Nevertheless, Africa in particular, lags far behind in global research capacity - in 1999-2008 African nations produced 27,000 papers/year, about the same number as The Netherlands. The £1.5Bn GCRF supports collaborative, large-scale projects between UK and developing country institutions. Many of these projects directly or indirectly contribute to strengthening research capacity in their partner institutions in developing countries by, for example, introducing research skills courses, purchasing equipment and facilitating networks. However, much of this effort is wasted because these capacity improvements are not institutionalised or sustained in the long-term. This is because the institutionalisation of changes was not the main purpose of the project and sustainability can take decades to achieve. In phase 1 we will identify strategies that have been used by GCRF and other UK-funded projects covering different research disciplines. We will collect data, initially through a survey, about what gains in research capacity were initiated by these projects and if, and how, these have been institutionalised, financed and sustained. Through our cluster members we will access information from around 100 of these projects' partner institutions in at least 20 African countries, including many of the poorest countries. This will provide information about what changes in research capacity have been initiated. To find out why and how these changes happened, why some succeeded and others did not, and to understand how the different contexts may influence uptake, financing and sustainability, we will undertake in-depth interviews with a range of key researchers, research managers, development funders and senior university officials in Africa and the UK. We will verify our findings by scrutinising the projects' annual reports and evaluations. All this information will be collated using a well-established framework that incorporates all the components that an institution needs to have in place to achieve world-class research capacity. From this information we will produce baseline data about research capacity strengthening changes that have been initiated through projects and which are common and independent of the research discipline. These will be accompanied by lessons and experiences about how and why these changes have or have not been institutionalised or sustained. We will develop draft guidelines about strategies that can promote uptake and durability of project-initiated improvements in research capacity, including how to promote equity in research opportunities and careers, to be tested during a subsequent project. The members of our cluster comprise researchers, research managers, grant-making agencies, an NGO and an African research 'think tank' with extensive convening power. The project will be led by the Centre for Capacity Research at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.