International collaborations

Much of our research and knowledge exchange activity focuses on addressing global challenges, and we are strongly committed to deepening and extending our international collaborations and partnerships to co-deliver these goals.

Addressing global challenges

Aligned with the University’s commitment to delivering global impact, we continue to support research and impact activities that address the specific challenges faced by low and middle income countries.

Over the past five years, we have worked with the Edinburgh Research Office to support CAHSS researchers in extending their engagement with ODA-related research, building on our expertise in area studies focused on Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as world-leading research on conflict and peace settlements, forced displacement, energy, education and human rights.

Our focus has been on

• extending the scope of researchers involved in ODA-related research and KEI, including through engaging with our area studies centres;
• and scaling up the ambition and activities of those already engaged.

This has resulted in a significant expansion of activity, including through Global Challenges Strategy funding and projects for the Department for International Development (DfID), with CAHSS winning £8.5m GCRF awards in 2019-2020. A key enabler of this success has been Scottish Funding Council (SFC) investment, which has financed a series of internal schemes to develop new collaborations, pilot projects, and knowledge exchange and engagement activities. SFC funds have also enabled the University and College to invest in early career researchers (ECRs), through the appointment of eight Global Challenges Chancellor’s Fellows (of which four are hosted by CAHSS), as well as four CAHSS postdoctoral fellows appointed in 2020.

However, we anticipate substantial changes to GCRF through the next spending review, and following the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with DfID, and will need to closely track and adapt to changing opportunities. In particular, we anticipate a shift away from UKRI and other funders’ ODA focus, towards an international strategy that incorporates a wider range of strategic partnerships. We will need to work with researchers who have built an ODA-oriented profile to identify alternative sources of funding; and in some cases, support researchers in pivoting their research to align with the UK Government and UKRI’s evolving international strategy.

• We will continue to support clusters working in areas of energy, forced displacement, conflict and peace-building, education and children, including through identifying new sources of funding.
• We will also explore new research agendas and funding sources with the the Al Waleed Centre and our area studies centres working on Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
• We will seek new opportunities to expand and diversify our ODA portfolio beyond GCRF and monitor changing FCDO/DfID priorities to identify potential new institutional funding opportunities.

EU partnerships

Strengthening our EU partnerships remains a priority.

We will continue to foster and support research collaborations with the University’s five main EU partners, universities of

• Amsterdam,
• Copenhagen,
• KU Leuven,
• Leiden,
• and University College Dublin.

These partnerships are now being supported through seed funding and joint PhD fellowships. Alongside these partnerships, our participation in UNA Europa opens up collaboration with a wider range of European universities, including the Free University of Berlin, Pantheon Sorbonne, the University of Bologna, and Complutense Madrid.

We will continue to scope and exploit opportunities for collaboration with our five EU partner Universities.

We will contribute actively to UNA Europa, including supporting new collaborative funding bids to Horizon programmes.

We will prioritise support for collaboration in European consortia and networks, including societal challenge projects funded through the new Horizon programme.

Travel and sustainability

While strongly supporting international collaborations, we are also keen to ensure we sustain connections while reducing our carbon footprint.

College Research Committee has confirmed its support for the Travel and Aviation Working Group’s approach to encouraging climate-conscious travel. This includes a presumption against air travel within the UK (building in exceptions on EDI grounds), and improved information on climate conscious options when staff book travel. This approach is supported by growing awareness that opportunities for international travel and networking are not equally available to all ECRs, raising EDI issues.

Covid-related restrictions have identified new opportunities for digital connections, which in many contexts can replace air travel. As Covid-related restrictions on travel are eased, we therefore have an opportunity to ‘build back better’, rethinking how we support international connections for research and develop opportunities with key partners. We are keen to prioritise the needs of early career researchers (ECRs), who are at a stage in their careers where international connections are especially important for developing their RKE.

Through discussions with ECRs across the University, we have identified two crucial aspects of travel for career development not covered by existing provisions:

• research mentoring,
• and research visits.

These two types of connection are challenging for ECRs to set up on their own, as they rely on approaching and negotiating with senior colleagues in other institutions, and often involve partners beyond academia. By contrast, the University is well placed to brokerage such connections, given our existing close institutional partnership with a number of universities.

We will work with Social Responsibility and Sustainability to encourage staff to limit their air travel, consistent with EDI issues.

We will work with Schools to encourage staff to use less CO2-intensive forms of travel for RKE, and support the use of alternative digital tools for collaboration.

We will work with Edinburgh Global to scope and develop possible schemes for digital mentoring and virtual visiting fellowships, to allow staff, and especially ECRs, to build international connections while reducing air travel.