Enabling Dynamic Partnerships through JointDegrees between Low- and High-IncomeCountries for Capacity Development in GlobalHealth Research: Experience from the KarolinskaInstitutet/Makerere University Partnership

Abstract

Partnerships between universities in high- and low-income countries have the potential to increase research capacity in both settings. We describe a partnership between the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Makerere University in Uganda that includes a joint PhD degree program and sharing of scientific ideas and resources.Ten years of financial support from the Swedish International Development Coopera-tion Agency has enabled 44 graduated PhD students and more than 500 peer-reviewed articles, the majority with a Ugandan as first author.The collaborative research environment is addressing Ugandan health and health system priorities, in several cases resulting in policy and practice reforms.Even though all Ugandan PhD graduates have remained in the country and 13 have em-barked on postdoc training, remaining institutional challenges include developing func-tioning research groups, grant writing, network building at Makerere, and continued funding on both sides of the partnership.