Such partnerships can address and enable research of issues in dynamic and complex contexts, as well as deal with uncertainties.
Moreover, such research cooperation allows different perspectives to be taken into account to explore issues that are strongly value driven or linked to conflicting interests and power claims.
Research centres were established in developing countries to support and promote knowledge and technology transfer.
However, this change in direction also called for new approaches in research, including interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods and initiatives that sought to understand the complexity of global problems and develop appropriate and relevant solutions.
[2][3] To comprehensively attempt to understand global challenges, these must also be studied and understood from the perspective of developing countries.
[12][13] Understanding global sustainable development challenges and designing solutions to address these challenges, requires genuine equitable collaboration among researchers from different countries, disciplines and sectors, including business, civil society, management, and politics.
[15] Equitable partnerships are grounded in the fair and equal distribution of participation, exposure to risk, and personal benefit (e.g., authorship of publications, career advancement, wages, etc.)
[16][17] "Access and benefit sharing" is a critical consideration of such cooperation: all researchers, research institutions and countries involved in a given initiative should have equal access to the data generated, as well as the social benefits and financial gains derived from these data.
Short project cycles and the pressure to generate findings quickly and cheaply make it difficult not only to build long-term research partnerships on an equal footing, but also to establish sustainable structures and strengthen relevant skills and capacities on the ground.