CONNECTED – Collective action to change inequitable funder policy

The Community Network for Vector-Borne Plant Viruses (CONNECTED) was a co-created network of around 1,600 plant scientists from 93 countries, primarily in Africa. It was funded by UKRI’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). It aimed to increase capacity in vector-borne plant virus research in Africa, through pump-priming new research, training, and networking.

CONNECTED faced various challenges due to funder requirements and issues, however trust between initial partners helped to underpin its success. One major milestone was the CONNECTED Network lobbying its funders to allow more equitable academic leadership opportunities for Africa-based partners.

Initially, Africa-based collaborators were not eligible to be Principal Investigators on CONNECTED’s pump prime funded projects – they were only eligible to be Co-Investigators – limiting the recognition of their academic leadership. A UK HEI was required to be the lead organisation on any pump priming bids, primarily to ensure that the administration of funds sent to overseas partners satisfied the funder’s requirements. This meant that these UK collaborators had to assume the Principal Investigator position, whether or not they were the true academic leader of the work.

How can African partners develop their international profiles in the discipline if excluded from being the Principal Investigators of the work?

CONNECTED, together with three other vector-borne disease networks funded by the same GCRF funding opportunity, felt that this policy did not fit with the ethos and spirit of the GCRF funding, which aimed to deliver economic and welfare benefits for Low and Middle Income Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing research capacity. How can capacity be truly enhanced if UK funders do not allow Africa-based academics to lead the new international collaborative research?

As a group, CONNECTED and the other vector-borne disease networks lobbied the funders change this policy. Network Directors and Managers wrote a joint letter to funders setting out how the current situation was affecting capacity in Africa-based scholarship and equitability in international collaborative research, plus the rationale for changing the position based on the aims of the GCRF funding.

The result was that the funders changed their policy, allowing Africa-based partners to assume the role of Principal Investigator, provided that a UK HEI was a co-investigating organisation on the grant for solely administrative purposes. This rebalanced the level of reward and recognition associated with project leadership roles by clarifying that the UK HEI was only required for administrative purposes and that true academic leadership rested with the Principal Investigator.

This is one example of how joint action between global North-South collaborators can change the research landscape to make it more equitable. For more information on equitability in Africa-facing research, see the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations.

 

Perivoli Africa Research Centre (PARC)

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