Aiding research capacity for development: tensions and dilemmas

• There is an unequal distribution of resources for higher education and research in the world, and the number of aid actors that focus on improving the research capacity of low-income countries has increased since the 1990’s. Many aid actors have explicit ambitions of escaping a colonialist heritage as well as abandoning the linear view of science and technology development, but there is debate concerning whether this is being achieved. What methods of aiding research are there, and how is the link between research capacity and development portrayed? This paper is mainly based on previous research and discusses some of the dilemmas that the literature raises. It also illustrates some of these dilemmas by discussing the case of the Secretariat for Research Cooperation (Sarec), which in 1975 was one of the first bilateral aid agencies to engage in research aid.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Research policy

foreign aid

research capacity

development

Sarec

research aid

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)