BMJ 2000;321:827-829 ( 30 September )

Education and debate

Moving to research partnerships in developing countries

Anthony Costello, professor of international child health ^a, Alimuddin Zumla, professor of infectious disease and international health ^b. 

^a Centre for International Child Health, Institute of Child Health, University College, London WC1N 1EH, ^b Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, University College, London WC1N 6DB

Correspondence to: A Costello a.costello@ich.ucl.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

What should be the principles behind investment in research in developing countries? Does current practice overemphasise the results of research and ignore issues like ownership, sustainability, and development of national research capacity? We believe that the research model supported by many funding agencies remains semicolonial in nature. Foreign domination in setting research priorities and project management may have negative consequences which outweigh the apparent benefits of the research findings. National academic leaders and institutions need to be involved if research is to be translated into practice. The deterioration in academic infrastructure in many developing countries needs to be reversed as part of any research investment. A truly cooperative research partnership, which should be monitored by funding agencies, rests on four broad principles:

• Mutual trust and shared decision making

• National ownership

• Emphasis on getting research findings into policy and practice

• Development of national research capacity.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

	Existing research models in developing countries

The semicolonial model
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