Following the publication of an article on equitable research partnerships on Campus in 2021, we were overwhelmed with responses from researchers and wishing to engage with us on how partnership processes could be more ethical and transparent. This has provided momentum to take the conversation further.

Changing the Story and Decolonising Peace Education in Africa are two Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) backed projects that we had been involved with. Based on our experiences, we explored the good and the more challenging aspects of establishing equitable partnerships in our submission to Campus. We looked at how to transform institutions in the Global North to promote a research culture and processes based on the principles of equity.

There is long way to go in dismantling unequal power dynamics in research partnerships and transforming institutional cultures that uphold hierarchies in management of projects, but it is possible to start this change by strengthening institutional capacities and increasing critical consciousness about the structures and processes impeding equitable collaboration.

In addition to sparking a response among researchers, our Campus article was cited in a 2022 report, Four Approaches to Supporting Equitable Research Partnerships by the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR), a group of government departments and research funders working in international development, and ESSENCE, an initiative to support funding for health research.

Since the piece was published, we have been invited by different research groups, platforms and initiatives, such as Decolonising Lancaster University, to share our experiences and attend sessions focused on how we can shape more inclusive research practices. Fellow researchers commended the piece for highlighting issues they have also encountered and for opening a conversation about the problem of inequitable partnership reinforcing colonial structures.

Melis Cin is senior lecturer in education and social justice and co-director of the Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education at Lancaster University and Faith Mkwananzi is a senior researcher in the Higher Education and Human Development research group (Centre for Development Support) at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa.