Analysis: Science without borders

WASHINGTON, May 31 (UPI) -- Working with researchers in developing countries is not just good will, it's also good science, experts said Thursday.

"Long-term relationships -- even with poor countries -- can yield very good results," said Jane Kengeya-Kayondo, coordinator of implementation research and methods at the World Health Organization.

Growth in research partnerships in developing countries is exploding. The Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, a major source of U.S. funding for the research, gave out about 400 grants totaling $68 million in 2006, and other organizations have followed suit.

Elite universities like Johns Hopkins and Yale have also partnered with overseas research institutions to develop cures for diseases.

The precedent for research in developing countries has long existed. Chemotherapy for cancer was first tried in Uganda, while oral rehydration therapy was invented in Bangladesh.

But the nature of research partnerships is changing.

In the past, researchers from the United States and Europe would set up shop in a poorer country without including local scientists at all, or using them in supporting roles. Now, researchers in Africa, Asia and South America are setting priorities and heading their own research projects.

People in developing countries "don't just want research done for them, they want research done by them," said Robert Ridley, director of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases at the WHO.

Many cross-continental collaborations have resulted in not just research, but the building of institutional capacity, Ridley said.

One example is the Universidad Peruana in Lima. In 1970 it received no grants for research. By 2005 researchers there received 30, he said. Now the university is a "center of excellence" that trains scientists from all over South America.

Such research has gotten the attention of international donors.

The Wellcome Trust, a British charity that distributes about $900 million in funding to projects in 50 countries, plans to increase its funding for developing world projects, said James Whitworth, head of international science at the trust.

The group's projects overseas "have been highly productive scientifically," he said.

The group's project in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, authored the first detailed description of the avian influenza virus and developed a highly effective treatment for tetanus. Another project in Nairobi, Kenya, is working on treatments for malaria and pneumonia.

Grantees author more than 100 peer-reviewed papers each year, he said, but there are challenges. A lack of postdoctoral researchers, for example, can hamper efforts to include local scientists.

But the biggest barriers to more collaboration may be in developed countries like the United States, said Janet Goldberg, senior strategist at the Families USA Global Health Initiative.

Unless researchers in the United States are sufficiently funded, they will not be able to help build research capacity in the developing world, she told United Press International.

Well-funded initiatives like the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief do not include a single dollar for research, she told United Press International. That lack of support means it will be difficult for researchers anywhere to prevent AIDS instead of just treating it.

But more money is not enough, she added. Partnerships need to be put in place to develop institutional capacity to make sure money is put to good use.

"Right now the bulk of expertise is in wealthy countries, but that's not the way it needs to be," she said. However, it's not a matter of just giving more cash. That's definitely better than nothing, but it's just a start. We need to make sure that cash is used in a smart, rational way."