Equity and scientific collaboration
A snippet from an opinion peice co-authored with researchers Abib Duut and Mohammed Shaaban. The original article is available here (credit Nature Careers):
Hollywood has a knack for painting captivating stories of scientists from around the world coming together to achieve the extraordinary — defeating a deadly virus or finding a new home for humanity — demonstrating the idea that the best science transcends borders. International collaborations have gifted us a COVID-19-quelling vaccine, a climate-tracking space station and evidence of the elusive Higgs boson particle.
But as researchers from lower-income countries now working in a wealthier one, we can see that scientific collaborations are not as glamorous or equitable as Hollywood portrays them.
Our personal ties to Africa make the scientific privilege in rich countries crystal clear. M.S., who grew up in Egypt, found that his ambitions in structural biology were hindered by the limited availability of advanced instruments in the country. In 2016, there was not a single cryogenic electron microscope — which can be used to reveal biological structures at the molecular level — in all of Africa. This stark reality was a reason he pursued graduate studies abroad. Using equipment in the United States and the United Kingdom, he helped to reveal structures of proteins involved in nucleation of the molecular motor actin and regulation of ubiquitin ligase, which can help target proteins for degradation — accomplishments that would have remained out of reach had he stayed in Egypt.
A.D. and N.M. were both born in Ghana but took distinct paths in their scientific careers. For A.D., Ghana was home until his undergraduate mentors encouraged him to seek opportunities in Europe. With their help, he secured funding to work as a computational scientist, first in Germany and later in the United Kingdom. This enabled him to support his family financially while gaining invaluable experience at world-class institutions. By contrast, N.M. immigrated to the United Kingdom with his family at a young age, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen. This was a ticket to a career in genetics that would not have been possible in Ghana. He studied at Lancaster University, UK, for a fraction of the fees charged to international students, and later joined the UK National Health Service just as the agency began to expand its global expertise in genomics.
How might our stories differ if we had not pursued academic careers abroad? The three of us have heard countless tales of frustration echoed by colleagues from around the world: a chemist in Delhi missing a revision deadline because of a catastrophic flood; a microbiologist in Kenya whose frozen malaria-parasite samples were ruined by frequent power cuts; and a geneticist in West Africa whose laboratory sees students join and leave before reagents for their experiments can clear the months-long import delays. These infrastructural, financial and technical challenges hinder lower-income countries from accessing the technologies that drive high-impact science. This disparity is backed up not just by anecdotes, but also by data. The G20 nations, a group of countries with some of the world’s largest economies, together account for 93% of global research papers, a proxy for scientific output (see ‘Global scientific output dominated by richer countries’).
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We encourage early-career researchers around the world to use their own experiences and platforms to foster meaningful international collaborations:
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Support globally inclusive research by seeking out collaborations between institutions in countries with different levels of economic development.
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Advocate for a seat at the table of committees, panels and steering groups that shape the nature of international partnerships
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Identify and pursue research projects that inherently require a two-way exchange of data, fieldwork, equipment or expertise with global partners.
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Organize with other scientists to encourage institutions and funders to change their policies so that researchers in LMICs are not marginalized
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Proactively form relationships with people at partner institutions, on funding-body committees and in local governments.
Image Credit: Steve Potvin/Francis Crick Institute
