Short Abstract

This roundtable explores how the nuts and bolts of development research funding intersect with wider questions of equity and justice in South-North research interactions.

Description

How do big questions about equity and justice in research on development studies intersect with changing institutional realities of development research funding? How do the nuts and bolts of Global North grant calls, organisational hierarchies and institutional dynamics shape the ability of researchers to deliver on political commitments to act in partnership? How do organisational incentives - often driven by administrative, bureacratic or funding imperatives - shape the production of knowledge and the circulation of concepts?

UK aid-funded research over the past couple of decades has sought to building of 'equitable partnerships' between global North and South. Yet, how institutional and organisation structures can be designed to best achieve this is - and whether they can persist in the face of aid cuts - is an open question.

This roundtable builds on recent work (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/political-economy/assets/portiabrieffull.pdf) problematising the unintended consequences of large grant-funded research centres on concept generation and dissemination. It invites a plurality of voices to speak to the direct pressures of the current moment in light of long-standing debates about decolonisation of the academy and epistemic injustice.