High income and low- and middle-income country collaborations

Themes

High income and low- and middle-income country collaborations

What is this about?

Collaborations between high income countries and low- and middle-income countries are increasingly common in a globalized world.

Why is this important?

Collaborations between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can be mutually beneficial endeavors. Researchers from HIC might benefit from local expertise and experience and gain access to unique resources, environments and participants. Researchers from LMICs potentially benefit from access to funding, international networks and opportunities for local capacity building. Collaborations can also, unfortunately, lead to negative experiences, ranging from different standards in data management and ethics applications to a lack of participation in research agenda setting and even coercive recruitment practices or exploitation of people/samples/resources.

For whom is this important?

FundersJunior researchersSenior researchers

What are the best practices?

Montreal Statement

The Montreal Statement on Research Integrity in Cross-Boundary Research Collaborations was developed at the 3rd World Conference on Research Integrity, 2013. The statement details twenty separate responsibilities of individuals and institutions concerning general collaborations, management of collaborations, collaborative relationships, and outcomes of research.

TRUST

TRUST is an EU funded project which aims to foster high ethical standards in research globally and to counteract the practice of “Ethics dumping” or double standards in research.

The TRUST project have developed a global code of conduct for research in research poor settings.

For the project website, click here.

Bridge Guidelines

The BRIDGE guidelines for good epidemiological practice in (global health) research foster high-quality epidemiological studies with impact where it is needed the most: in the local communities and local research systems where the research is conducted.

For more information see here.

Cape Town Preamble Statement on fostering Research Integrity through Fairness and Equity

This statement was drafted at the 7th World Conference in Research Integrity, held in Cape Town in 2022. The statement offers recommendations and principles for conducting research in a fairer and more equitable way, especially when the research in question involves collaborations between high and low- or middle-income countries.

The WCRI have developed a poster summarising and explaining the preamble to the statement.

You can read the Cape Town Statement in full here.

Lancet Global Health Initiative

In 2023, the Global Health team at the Lancet published a statement in support of the decolonising agenda in global health, and against "helicopter research" in particular. This statement outlines measures that can be taken to counter helicopter research, including a new Equitable Partnership Declaration that will be published alongside future articles where at least one author is from a high-income country, but in which the research itself was conducted in a low- or middle-income country.

You can find the statement here.

International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans

The 2016 guidelines published by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) offer guidelines for different aspects of research involving humans, to ensure it is conducted in an ethical manner.

Guidelines two and three concentrate explicitly on guideliens for the ethical conduct of research in low-resource settings and for the equitable distribution of benefits and burdens among partners in the conduct of research respectively.

You can find the full guidelines here.

The Embassy Editorial team, Iris Lechner, Natalie Evans, Joshua Gualtieri contributed to this theme. Latest contribution was Apr 10, 2024

Other information

Virtues & Values

• Autonomy
• Collegiality
• Professional courtesy and fairness

Good Practices & Misconduct

• Collaborative research
• International collaboration
• Power abuse