Collaboration between academics and NGOs on research projects provides opportunities to advance policy and programming agendas to tackle global development challenges.
INTRAC has long promoted effective practitioner-academic collaboration. We focus on:
- Shaping research approaches and agendas that involve or affect civil society organisations
- Conducting research and contributing to debates on what makes for effective partnership
- Putting learning into practice through direct involvement in collaborative research projects with academics, to which we bring knowledge from practice around the world on key development topics. We apply our methods expertise and experience in dissemination and outreach to ensure outputs are relevant to practitioners and policy-makers
Promoting collaboration
From February to October 2018, INTRAC worked with the Rethinking Research Collaborative, an informal international network of individuals and organisations committed to working together to encourage more inclusive, responsive collaborations to produce useful and accessible development research. With funding from UK Research and Innovation the Collaborative investigated perspectives on research collaboration from multiple actors and produced a set of resources to support fair and equitable partnerships and a research report.
In November 2016, we facilitated a two-day conference hosted by the Leeds Social Sciences Institute and Centre for Global Development to explore the role of interdisciplinary research in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2012, INTRAC, World Vision and the University of Bradford received a grant from the Development Studies Association. The four-month ‘Cracking Collaboration’ project explored research collaboration, looking at: how partnerships are negotiated and navigated; the impetus behind partnerships; how collaboration affects research results; and the highs and lows of collaboration.
Collaborative research projects
We put learning into practice on what makes for effective collaboration through our involvement in long-term research projects with academics in the North and South, including the University of Mzumbe (Tanzania); and the Universities of Reading and Portsmouth (UK).
Contribution to debates
We are active participants in professional academic and practitioner networks/associations, including the Development Studies Association, the International Society for Third Sector Research, and the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.