Partnerships in the research field

What characterises a successful partnership?

Successful knowledge cooperation partnerships are often characterised by long-term cooperation and close, open and trusting communication between the partners. However, experience varies between institutions and between individual researchers, and there are few or no common Norwegian guidelines on how to ensure a good partnership over time. It will often depend on the persons involved, and a partnership between institutions should have the support of the management and the academic staff.

How to achieve equality in a partnership?

Equitable partnerships are about recognising the partners' competence and giving them real opportunities for responsibility, development and competence-building, which will strengthen all partners in a project. Equality also helps to distribute and reduce administrative, financial and academic risk. Fairness, respect, care and honesty are key prerequisites for success.

It is important to ensure a fair distribution of budgets, which should also cover administrative support and other indirect costs. Plans for mobility, data management, access, crediting and dissemination of results, as well as IPR management and data protection, should be developed early and jointly to safeguard the rights of all partners and provide predictability for researchers entering into a partnership after it has been established.

Equitable partnerships have become increasingly important in the discussion about knowledge cooperation and cooperation between researchers and institutions. This is particularly relevant for cooperation between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), where funding often goes through Norwegian education and research institutions responsible for the financial and administrative follow-up of the project. The starting point for cooperation with local partners in LMICs is therefore often based on an imbalance of power, where the project owner in Norway defines the parameters for the knowledge cooperation.

It is important to be aware that an imbalance of power can also be to the disadvantage of the Norwegian academic environments, since Norway is a much smaller country than our priority partner countries, with fewer specialised academic environments and limited financial opportunities at the institutions' disposal. In cases where the education and research activities are carried out in other countries, local knowledge and contact networks are also a source of influence.

To strengthen work on equitable partnerships, the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) and ESSENCE on Health Research have developed a practical guide that research funders, research institutions and researchers can use in their work.

The European Commission applies The TRUST Code - A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships when funding research conducted in low-resource settings. This is also linked to research ethics considerations related to cultural differences, risks of exploitation, involvement of vulnerable groups and local partnerships when conducting research in other countries. In Norway, the National Research Ethics Committees have developed research ethics guidelines which can be a good help to researchers planning research in low- and middle-income countries, but also in other countries.

What assessments should the institutions' management and administration make?

• Both the short-term and the long-term benefits of the partnership should be described.
• Consider establishing administrative support to allow academic staff to develop equitable partnerships in connection with:
  • The development of cooperation agreements
  • Setting up budgets and allocating costs
  • Measures to reduce risk, e.g. for financial dishonesty on the part of a partner, through prior due diligence and procedures for regular follow-up
  • Plans for responses to unforeseen incidents: termination or adjustments to project plans
• Cooperate with administrative staff at the partner institution to achieve a mutual understanding of e.g. the budget, accounting procedures, reporting, hiring and legislation.
• Check the partner's possible links and ties to the state, intelligence service and military in the country in question, especially for countries with which Norway does not have security policy cooperation. This also applies to owners when the partner is a business, and to companies owned by the business.
• Be sure to collect enough information to be able to assess the risk to your own values and assets, security and reputation. This includes laws and regulations in partner countries for data sharing, personal data and intellectual property rights. Sometimes local laws and regulations will also be relevant.
• Do stays with the partner organisation entail any particular risks to researchers or students? Such risks can be related to nature, society or politics.
• Is a residence permit or visa required? What type of permit or visa is required? For mobility to Norway, see www.udi.no.
• Consider the distribution of risk in the project. This applies to all academic and administrative risks, not just risks associated with responsible international cooperation.
• Consider whether values such as academic freedom should be included in agreements.
• Carry out due diligence of the partner.

What should due diligence of a partner entail?

• Due diligence of the partner entails mapping activities, the sector in which the organisation operates, a commercial and ethical assessment of the institution's/enterprise's management and framework conditions:
  • Does the partner have a specific political, ideological or commercial agenda that should be taken into account?
  • Is the partner, including its employees or persons that serve on its governing bodies, linked to military activities or companies with an unclear profile?
  • What kind of relationship does the partner have with its own authorities, national or local?
  • What kind of decision-making structures does the partner have?
  • Check any previous relationships with foreign partners. Are there any issues or incidents that have caused problems?
  • Is the partner committed to following rules or norms for ethical conduct, transparency, openness, and academic freedom?
  • Is the partner in a sound financial situation, and does it have good and reliable operating systems?

Proposed assessments and procedures for the academic community

• Start the planning as early as possible so that you have as much time as possible to develop cooperation methods. Ensure a fair distribution of funds and institutional costs among the partner institutions. Ask for information about the partner organisations' own calculation models and cost estimates when you prepare the budget.
• All partners should be included from the start and be involved in the development of:
  • Research questions
  • Methods
  • Plan for the use of infrastructure and equipment, including digital infrastructure
  • Data management plans
  • Rules for crediting and authorship
  • Distribution of intellectual property rights
  • Networking activities
  • Plans for dissemination
• Involve any users from an early stage to ensure relevance and benefits. This includes users in the countries where the research is carried out.
• Are there cultural differences that can lead to inaccurate wording in an agreement, or inadequate shared understanding of measures that can be implemented in a given problematic situation?
• Are there differences in legislation, e.g. related to personal data, that must be taken into account?
• Consider the dual-use potential (see page about export control).
• Identify opportunities for commercial exploitation of the results.
• Determine whether there is a need for strategies related to intellectual property rights. The development of patents can be an explicit political goal in other countries. A patent ensures a time-limited protection of a concrete idea in exchange for publication and a detailed description of the idea. The easier the idea can be copied, the greater the likelihood that the patent right will be violated. If you apply for a patent, you should be prepared to defend yourself through the courts if the patent is infringed, with the financial consequences this will have. See more about the protection of trademarks, designs and patents on the Norwegian Industrial Property Office's website.