NACCAP/EDCTP satellite meeting: African researchers are missing out on publications and career advancement
29 oktober 2009
For NACCAP and EDCTP, balanced and ethical partnerships between research groups from South and North are pivotal, as well as engagement with third party partners such as public and private partnerships with shared ownership responsibilities. However, researchers in general are mainly focused on research and are often reluctant to pass ownership issues to third parties without realizing the long-term consequences. During the Fifth EDCTP forum on 13 October 2009 in Arusha, NACCAP and EDCTP organized a satellite meeting on fair ownership of research results to sensitize (African) researchers and to identify needs in order for funders to better align their funding strategies and policies.
The attendees of this meeting observed (amongst others) that African researchers are missing out on publications and career advancement, because they fail to claim their ownership. But what are the underlying reasons for that?
Lack of access to data was pointed out as a main problem. Few institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa have funding for data generation and management and are therefore in a weak position to negotiate with their developed-country partners. The low capacity of Sub-Saharan African institutions and researchers to store and manage large amounts of electronic data also contributes to the problem, and even when electronic storage is available it is poorly utilized. Furthermore it was pointed out that there is a lack of modern scientific platforms for data analyses, meaning that data analysis has to be done in the west, this makes ownership negotiations difficult.But also less technical issues came forward, for instance the limited participation of African researchers in protocol design and development during collaborations. In many areas, partnerships between academic-based and commercial firms are the common model for the development of new knowledge-based products and services. In these multi-stakeholder partnerships, researchers, research institutions, commercial sponsors and public funders should all claim ownership. The education system, that puts a premium on passing exams and gives students little information about the importance of owning data, was also put forward as part of the problem.
All in all, many African researchers and institutions are not able to access data or have difficulties with protecting their intellectual property, data or research outcomes. This hampers the balance between ownership and utilization of research products. Attendees of the meeting argued that capacity building is essential in changing this picture. It is the responsibility of funding agencies and collaborating institutions to ensure that this happens. But it was also argued in the meeting that not only the funding agencies are responsible: "Researchers are part of the institutions […]. They should seek to be part of the decision-making process."
This news item is based on the Fifth EDCTP Forum blog and SciDev news. For more information about the Fifth EDCTP Forum visit www.edctpforum2009.org
