Combining development, capacity building and responsible innovation in GCRF‐funded medical technology research

Development‐oriented funding schemes such as the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) have opened up opportunities for collaborations between low‐middle income countries (LMICs) and high‐income country (HIC) researchers. In particular, funding for medical technology research has seen a rise in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developing world bioethics Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 276 - 287
Main Authors: Bezuidenhout, Louise, Stirling, Julian, Sanga, Valerian L., Nyakyi, Paul T., Mwakajinga, Grace A., Bowman, Richard
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2022
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Subjects:
Appropriate technologies
Appropriate technology
Biomedical Research
Capacity Building
Capacity building approach
Capacity development
Challenges
Collaboration
Developing Countries
development
Ethics
Financial Management
Funding
GCRF
Health care
Health services
Humans
Income
Innovations
Instrumentation
Laboratories
LMIC
Low income groups
Medical research
medical technologies
Medical technology
Original
Physicists
Physics
R&D
Research & development
Technology
Three dimensional printing
United Kingdom > UK
LMIC
medical technologies
GCRF
development
ethics
ISSN:1471-8731, 1471-8847, 1471-8847
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Development‐oriented funding schemes such as the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) have opened up opportunities for collaborations between low‐middle income countries (LMICs) and high‐income country (HIC) researchers. In particular, funding for medical technology research has seen a rise in previously under‐represented disciplines such as physics and engineering. These collaborations have considerable potential to advance healthcare in LMICs, yet can pose challenges experienced to researchers undertaking these collaborations. Key challenges include a lack of tradition of HIC/LMIC collaborations within participating departments, lack of experience with development agendas, designing contextually‐appropriate technologies and ensuring long‐term viability of research outputs. This paper reflects on these key challenges, using the experiences of the authors on the Open Laboratory Instrumentation (OLI) project as a focalizing lens. This project was a GCRF‐funded collaboration between physicists in the UK and engineers in Tanzania to develop an open‐source, 3D‐printed, fully‐automated laboratory microscope. The paper highlights key ethics lessons learnt.
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ISSN:1471-8731
1471-8847
1471-8847
DOI:10.1111/dewb.12340