TY - JOUR

T1 - Balancing research and organizational capacity building in front-end project design

T2 - experiences from Danida's ENRECA programme

AU - Hjortsø, Carsten Nico Portefée

AU - Meilby, Henrik

N1 - published online 26 June 2013

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - North–South research capacity building (RCB) partnerships have attracted considerable academic attention during the last two decades, especially with regard to issues related to partnership governance. Less attention has been given to the management aspects of partnership implementation, but in order for partnerships to comply with general governance-level recommendations, a better understanding is needed of how specific context-dependent factors influence the development and execution of projects. In this article, we aim to contribute to the understanding of factors influencing the design phase of RCB partnerships and examine how they influence the balance between performing collaborative research and developing general organizational capacity. Data collection was based on a survey (n = 25), and individual interviews and focus group discussions with 17 Danish project managers from the Danish Bilateral Programme for Enhancement of Research Capacity in Developing Countries. Our results lead to rejection of the proposition that RCB projects are either focused on building capacity for research or conducting merit-based research. Because of the ‘politics’ of the front-end process, reality is more complex. We identify 11 specific factors influencing front-end project management related to structure, process and relationship, and we theorize about how these factors influence the choice between research and more general capacity development activities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

AB - North–South research capacity building (RCB) partnerships have attracted considerable academic attention during the last two decades, especially with regard to issues related to partnership governance. Less attention has been given to the management aspects of partnership implementation, but in order for partnerships to comply with general governance-level recommendations, a better understanding is needed of how specific context-dependent factors influence the development and execution of projects. In this article, we aim to contribute to the understanding of factors influencing the design phase of RCB partnerships and examine how they influence the balance between performing collaborative research and developing general organizational capacity. Data collection was based on a survey (n = 25), and individual interviews and focus group discussions with 17 Danish project managers from the Danish Bilateral Programme for Enhancement of Research Capacity in Developing Countries. Our results lead to rejection of the proposition that RCB projects are either focused on building capacity for research or conducting merit-based research. Because of the ‘politics’ of the front-end process, reality is more complex. We identify 11 specific factors influencing front-end project management related to structure, process and relationship, and we theorize about how these factors influence the choice between research and more general capacity development activities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

KW - .

KW - Research capacity development

KW - Project management

KW - North-south partnership

KW - Research aid and development

U2 - 10.1002/pad.1649

DO - 10.1002/pad.1649

M3 - Journal article

VL - 33

SP - 205

EP - 220

JO - Public Administration and Development

JF - Public Administration and Development

SN - 0271-2075

IS - 3

ER -