The Rethinking Research Collaborative (RRC) was an international network of networks including research organisations, civil society organisations, social movements, international NGOs and research brokers, training providers and funders who were committed to working together to explore the politics of participation in knowledge for international development and to encourage more inclusive and responsive collaboration in order to produce more relevant research.

Founded through an ESRC-funded seminar series in 2014, a network-building and agenda-setting grant from the Open University in 2017 and a grant from UKRI for strategic research to inform fairer and more equitable research collaboration in the context of their Oversees Development Assistance (ODA) funded research, the RRC evolved from a UK-focussed network (with core partners including The Open University, Christian Aid, INTRAC, Bond and UKCDR) to an international movement (with partners including the UNESCO Chair programme in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, Global Development Network, Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, MS TCDC and the pan-African social movement Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity.)

In 2019 the RRC was awarded first prize for ‘Best External Research Collaboration’ at the Open University’s 50th Birthday Research Awards. We produced a series of influential Principles for Fair and Equitable Research Collaborations, publications on ‘Evidence and the Politics of Participation‘, ‘Rethinking Research Impact‘ and ‘Moving Beyond Partnership with Systems Thinking and Complexity Theory‘ a series of high-impact learning resources and reports for funders such as UKRI and network organisations such as Bond.

Building on our collective commitment to decolonising international development as well as our research which increasingly called into question the value of ‘research partnerships’ over and above more sustained investment in research systems in the global South, in 2021 we took the decision to disband the RRC as an expert network and instead to support the ongoing work of our southern-based partners. Please refer to the work of the UNESCO Chair programme in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, Global Development Network, Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, MS TCDC, Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity and Southern Voice for ongoing commentary on research collaboration for international development.

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Seminar 1: Context-Setting

Thursday 26th February 2015

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church (London)

 

The seminar report for this seminar is available here

 

The first seminar in our series takes the form of a ‘context-setting’ event. The aims of this seminar are:

  • To introduce the seminar series and some of the case study partnerships that we will be examining
  • To draw on previous work and experiences from a variety of actors to introduce a range of perspectives/positions/ideas about research partnerships
  • To use this background to develop a way of thinking through partnerships which will guide the remainder of the series

The agenda for the seminar is available here. 

In order to maximise time for collaborative discussion we are keen to avoid a series of individual presentations on the day. At the same time, we would like to respond to and build on participants’  prior experiences and work in this area. All participants are therefore invited to contribute their positions and summarise the key findings from existing work in the following ways:

  • By responding to a brief survey which we will inform the event
  • By contributing a short 1-2 side position paper/thought-piece/summary of relevant projects or visualisation

The survey is open to all participants as well as those interested but unable to attend the seminar. It will remain open until the 25th February 215 and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ESRC_Seminars_Context

An initial analysis of the survey responses is available here.

Contributions from participants can be accessed here.

And some background to the case studies is available here.

FRIDAY 27TH FEBRUARY 2015

LIDC (London)

Following the context-setting seminar, the core team will meet for a half-day workshop to discuss ‘ways of working’ over the four subsequent ‘core’ seminars. The core group is restricted to a smaller number of participants who will be presenting partnership case studies and are committed to attending the full seminar series. This is to build up trust and create a safe enabling environment for critical reflection on experiences in partnerships – which can be sensitive and personal. Summaries of discussions will be available on this website and external participants will  be invited to input into the seminars via the website, blog and twitter feed.

If you are interested in joining the core group please contact Jude Fransman (jude.fransman@open.ac.uk)

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