Fitz Globe by Norman B Leventhal Map Center at the BPL
Howard Stevenson has just blogged about an interesting and relevant article published in the International Electronic Journal of Leadership for Learning. You can view it in full below:
Making it work: identifying the challenges of collaborative international research
Despite the title, the article also focuses on the potential benefits that international collaboration can bring to the research process and the researchers themselves. It contains useful reflections and lessons learned on the difficulties surrounding initiating and sustaining international collaboration. Particularly relevant is their discussion of funding difficulties:
Funding proved a significant factor in many aspects of the project. Morrison et al. (2003, p. 288) have noted that a lack of finance can mitigate against collaboration because partners and potential partners “are unable to attend overseas conferences and workshops deemed necessary for collaborative work”. The project had only minimal funding (money was available more for nation-based study rather than one of international dimensions), thus constraining the arrangement of face-to-face meetings of members of the research team as well as minimizing access to sufficient support for the research, such as that provided by quality research assistants. Despite this, some funds were made available by the project initiator to the other partners, assisting in literature reviews and interview transcription. The potential significant limiting impacts of the funding constraints were not identified and fully understood in the early stages of the project. As a result, the researchers were put under pressure to cope with timelines and proposed outputs with minimal institutional support. In this regard, we did not anticipate the potential interpersonal and research-related challenges that arose (Stead & Harriman, 2000).
Planning is thus seen as key to a successful international research collaboration. The authors identify three key criteria from their experiences which are worth considering for any researcher embarking on work with international collaborators:
- Relationships are critical – early stage face-to-face meetings are suggested as a good way to foster good relations among the team.
- Aims and objectives should be specified – it is generally not advisable to assume all partners are working towards exactly the same goal.
- Complementing capacities of collaborative – this is key to ensuring that all participants have a clear role in the project.
Different disciplines would no doubt encounter similar challenges to varying degrees. Obviously the ideal scenario would be one where you work with previous partners, but this isn’t always possible, particularly where you are starting out or need to move into a new field.