I thought we'd just take a moment to think about what is development research.
So this is this is a thing that we now have.
We used to have development and we had to search and now we have development, research or research for development.
And I think it's really important for you to just remember what that is so that when you are approaching this kind of work,
that you're approaching it from the right perspective. So basically in the UK, what this means,
these are funds to support research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries and the funds that we have a effort.
For example, DFID Newton Fund Gates Foundation that locks these funds in the UK are designed to support the UK aid strategy.
Yes, we have one. And if you clicked on that, you could say if this is about tackling global challenges, but also in the national interest.
And whilst also solving one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals, usually in a three year timeframe, if you're lucky, so that's right.
The idea is that this is a blueprint for achieve a better and more sustainable future for all the Sustainable Development Goals apply.
Regardless of whether you're doing research in India or whether you're doing research and reading, you know, the sustainable, they cover everything.
Of course we're looking at this from this, but from the LMC kind of perspective today.
So the other thing, of course, to bear in mind for the cynics in the audience, that's all you look.
I think, is that in essence, if this ODA funding we have now is a kind of political reworking of the UK aid budget now for us as
universities and researchers and colleagues here who want universities but who also work in this field,
that's kind of nice because it does give us a way of contributing.
Whether you feel that this is the right use for aid, money is possibly a conversation to have over the possibly second glass of wine later.
The thing to bear in mind with development research,
though it's only research that directly and primarily is relevant to the problem of developing countries,
maybe crafters, over official development assistance. And that's when you're looking at things like GCR from DFID.
That's the first question that you have to ask yourself. Who's it for?
OK? And you would think that was very obvious, but sometimes it's for our own benefit.
It's for our own careers. It's for OK. So now it's who is it for?
So I've made a picture because of this reworking of the the kind of our aid commitments, which is this not 0.7 percent of GDP.
And whilst we have a GDP, then then nought point seven percent that that's quite good.
I'd refer you to the other parts of my job.
If you look at the first graph from from where we were in 2015 to where we will be sort of next year in the year after,
that's been a huge increase in ODA spending.
If we imagine, of course, it is a repurposing of what there was before, but it is directed towards research.
I can't imagine as anybody who hasn't memorised one to second team in the second,
but those are the Sustainable Development Goals and these are this is the context in which you are doing your ODA research G7.
The Global Challenges Research Fund was set up in 2016. I think it was 1.5 billion to be spent by 2020.
Now that means when they say spent, that means allocated.
It doesn't mean that everything has to stop the end.
It just means that through 2021, they will still be giving out money for research projects that may then last three or four years after that.
But it will be committed by the end of 2021, and the GCA projects must be over at some point.
They absolutely have to be. You have to do your little statement about the compliance, and that's the first thing they look at.
And if that's no good, they don't look any further. I mean, whether you say that's taking it seriously or not, I don't know.
But this is this is what you really need to to get kind of at the back of your mind for everything.
The Newton Fund is another UK fund,
and that's for developing science and innovation partnerships like economic development and welfare of collaborating countries.
A lot of fellowships. We're talking about how we build networks.
I think money and people, in fact, that I should have just said that to my Hello, the future is money and people.
Good night. But it is, you know, and the key is where do we get the money and how do we reach the people?
And in essence, that's the the way we need to think about it.
In terms of ODA research, we have to embrace this new way of thinking with we as university based researchers.
So research rather than aid is a kind of solution.
It's been posited now as a solution in all of these things.
Your partner country, your your LMC, whichever one it is Africa.
Of course, it's about Africa today.
It is about your colleagues in Africa, your stakeholders, your your, your network, whoever it is, they are defining the challenge.
We have to move away from the good old days where people like me would come and say to people like, You know what your problem is, don't you?
And this is what you need to do, and we'll sort it out and then I'll just leave. And I'm this this.
This was age. This was support. This is not the future.
This is about you telling me what the issue is, and we are coming up with the best solution that is delivered,
you know, with, you know, two not for you, but with.
It's the prepositions are everything in this new kind of of of of world with and for.
OK, if it's not within four, it's not ODA. Excuse me, in order to do all that, of course, equitable partnership is crucial.
And again, the equity is not just about the interaction, it's about the funding, you know.
The nice thing of the new thing really, with a fund like G-series is instead of it saying,
Dear Professor in Oxford, you can have X million pounds to go do something you know on or for Africa.
It's actually funding for both halves on many parts of the partnership.
And that's that. That's a big, a big change. And I think it's important.
And we as Oxford based researchers, those of us who are need to bear that in mind when we are building our partnerships.
We need to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and those aren't stakeholders here, although some of those are quite important.
It's the stakeholders that you're who who will help you deliver the solutions that you're looking for,
you know, and do not underestimate how tricky that can be.
I mean, it's bad enough trying to do it in Whitehall, you know, but if you're if.
But if you're dealing, you know, across five or six different African countries, I mean,
I've even identified them and having the kind of relationships that you need them, it's really tough and it's hard work and it's not it's not quick.
You know, and and so it's really again, everything's really important.
If you don't have that engagement, you won't have successful outcomes.
OK? You might have outcomes, but they're unlikely to be truly successful.
And the successes, if you're thinking about the impact, it's it's stuff that actually gets used.
It's not. It's not lovely things that get sort of printed or published.
It's actually stuff that happens.
So when we're thinking about success of our activities, our research, what are the outputs may might be non-standard.
You know, it may be something that you just wouldn't normally expect in your in your standard approach to research.
Excuse me. I mean, a lemon, a set of laminated cards that a clinician might have a monster.
That's not you wouldn't normally expect to return that to ref, but actually in this context,
exactly the sort of output that would be measurable and effective.
And so that's what I mean by the kind of would all sorts of things. I mean, obviously, what you need for local context is key.
But also what's good for you as an Oxford academic researcher might have no relevance at all to Africa.
So what we're talking about really is research impact versus development impact.
OK, now obviously development impact.
That's what we know from defeat in those programmes and things of change and nightmarish monitoring and evaluation.
OK. We don't actually want it to be, but not nor is it the same as standard research impact.
So it's some of the morphing of the two. As I said in a paper in Nature, maybe it's very,
very little importance to any of the people you're working with in Africa, though it might look good on your neck.
And so we have to rethink and the development techniques it needs to be demonstrated through the influence of non-academic partners also.
So, you know, it's business, it's NGOs in the national government departments, local government, multilateral agencies, funded local actors.
And those might be politicians that maybe help people.
They might they might be the elders of a community that you're, you know, whatever the mayor of whatever, whoever it is,
these are the people that will help you kind of do do do it and therefore be able to demonstrate impact.
And as I said, the key thing is that is that whatever it is that you're doing, it will be used and this is so early.
Research does not cover academic commentary on development issues.
OK, now the thing is very often said, Oh yes, I'm interested in Africa, India or wherever.
Very often it's that that they're interested in writing about it.
And what we need to have is people who were interested in doing something about it and where it's all the issues that that affects.
So research should be for no prep. Not about.
OK, and that's again, really, excuse me.
It's really interesting and just imperative.
So when we talk. About equitable partnerships and stuff, I mean, obviously the world's not very equitable place.
And so you might say, well, how could we have an equitable partnership with kind of big old Oxford,
big old rich, you know, everybody knows Oxford and the university, for example, in Africa.
So we ask that question. And so the UK Right Partnership Programme for Capacity Building,
this is the sort of thing that at the government level is being put in place to just fine up.
Now, of course, the problem is that when we talk about Africa, it's the third big like they're very big plays a very, you know,
it's a big collection of a lot of places that are all very different and have the the different kind of regional and national needs.
And some of the capacity and capability is much higher in some parts than others because of historic sort of wealth or investment.
However, what they're trying to do is to build capacity for science and research across African universities now.
Sadly, that 13 senses at the moment.
But it is to provide opportunities for the research teams and GCR grant holders so that for those in need in Oxford,
you've got to put people in Africa to go, Hey, we can build on this.
You've already had some funding. We can take this further. And I think that's something that we need to take advantage of if we can.
It is around building equitable collaborations and now we've get the government are saying this,
and I think the research councils are pushing this very hard.
We have to keep this and say that this is the way that it has to be and more money needs to go to Africa.
But of course, for the sustainability of the Oxford based team, what that means is there needs to be more money overall.
And I think pushing, as you know, from the spending review onwards,
and this is what we need if we're going to make a real difference 1.5 billion, this isn't enough.
And so the programme this programme that was introduced last year, there are two strands.
The capacity this is the there are there are 13 US centres of excellence around Africa, many of them, of course, in South Africa.
I know, I know, we'll work on that one as well.
So there was a capacity building, and so I think about 11 or 12 grants have been awarded, and that's about 600 K for some of these centres.
There's a pie in each of these centres. So for those of you who haven't yet necessarily kind of done, then you've got your own network.
Maybe start to look at places where people have funding and whether it's online and at the same time, align yourself.
You know, you can align yourself with an issue.
Perfect, because that means to drive your own sort of interest, you can align yourself and not in a country again for that.
But also then within that may be one of the best way to start.
To think about how you might build the right network is to go well.
He's doing really good stuff in this field, you know, and maybe given that the UK is funding some of them,
but maybe they've done some of that work for you now. Maybe that that the people who want to work with aren't in those.
And that's fine because there are many, many more universities in Africa than there is funding, for example.
So I shouldn't let you let that rule anything else out.
The research excellence strand there was a call earlier this year of a fund up to six joint research projects,
and we all know what those are in February. So again, for those of you off the face, you have to hope this one here isn't all about research.
The UK government is also looking at innovation and trade,
so last year they announced these innovation partnerships with African countries South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
So this is about boosting innovation in technology, and that could accelerate the programme's entrepreneurship schemes.
Now, for some of the work that happens in Oxford, so we have accelerator programmes, impact acceleration.
Some of the stuff that's coming out of the research that's happening here is, yes,
it's absolutely perfect to to slot into development through these innovation programmes.
And that's fine. You know, that's another way. It's not necessarily all about research early next year.
This is on the DFID website. There's a UK Africa investment summit and this is business governments.
International institutions showcase and promote the breadth and quality of investment opportunities across Africa.
It's probably an interesting thing, whether there's anything it will tell you, potentially what may be coming next and.
In terms of how the relationships between the UK around trade, around growth.
When you think about countries, you know,
the high and middle income countries know what the UK is interested in doing is investing in things that will give a return.
What they're looking for our future trade partners and there's nothing wrong with that.
OK, so this is why they're doing that. We should we need to be a part of that.
But from the research perspective, too, because the the greater the divergence, I think between the knowledge that comes from research,
the freedom into innovation and what governments may be doing in terms of just trade,
then that then generally, I don't think that's particularly healthy in times to come.
Another thought, just because it's UK Africa doesn't mean the UK has to pay for it.
So the other bit I do is the European stuff.
So almost all the European research funding is aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals.
So the current framework programme and Horizon 2020, it's all that in the collaborative parts of those programmes old black list countries,
with the exception of India, Brazil and two other of the high income China.
They are eligible to be directly funded from the European Commission.
Now what that means, of course, is that they'd be you in whichever African country you're working with,
somebody in Oxford and you would need a couple of others across Europe.
But you know, Oxford, so well-connected into Europe. Those those networks are there.
So it just adds another dimension and a place that that Oxford colleagues, let alone people from from from Africa, should be looking at.
And then in the current programme, there are also a couple of well, there are many special initiatives,
but I just picked a couple at the EU Africa Partnership on Food, Nutrition, Security and Sustainable Agriculture.
They took millions and millions of euros into that.
There's cooperation with African countries on renewable energies, and these are in the collaborative parts of the programme, said.
And this is going to continue and increase in the next framework programme that will start in 2021.
Whether we're in it or not remains to be seen.
However, Africa South Africa can participate as a third country.
We, if we're not, if we don't, if we leave without a deal, we too can participate on the we so the UK can participate on a self-funded basis.
So the government would pay for us to be in those programmes. But African countries and institutions, they will be funded directly from, OK.
It's still a thing. Partnerships, no, so this is all money.
Remember, I said that there was a point to this, remember that people thing for the market says Europe has this thing called the people programme.
And one of the things is the so-called Oscar Curie Fellowships. OK?
For those of you who didn't know Marie Curie was actually polish.
And when the Polish, when when Poland had the presidency, the thing that they did was make sure that they put up Oskar back in her name.
And then most of the spent ages eight learning how to pronounce and be finding that funny thing.
Yeah, I couldn't pay for that every time. I can never remember where it is. What part of the Marie Curie programme are the fellowships?
And these are either global or European. So in order to get a Marie Curie fellowship, you have to cross the border.
OK, these are open, but these are for researchers. I'm in the next programme.
They're likely to be more early career researchers at the moment.
It's for anybody. So there's one more call where anybody can do it. OK? And depending on how it goes, UK people may still be eligible.
And when I say UK, it's people who are in the UK. It's nothing to do with your nationality.
It's to do with where you're based.
So the European ones, where you go from one European country to another to learn to do your amazing research project.
Interestingly, of course, you can apply from anywhere.
So anybody, anywhere in Africa can apply to come to Oxford to two years and the department gets the money.
You get some research you get, you get a really high living allowance.
So your salary is high, you get money because you're not at home, you get honest and you get that great.
I mean, do you talk to the European part of my team about them and the next the final call in this programme will be next September for Oxford people.
What you can do is apply for gold or fellowship, which means you can go to a third country for EU for two years and then you get to come back
for a third year and you have to come back when you're thinking about either your own careers.
For those early career researchers who were here, then either it is that you can go and you can actually get those those those real relationships.
For those of you who were on the short term fellowships, the Fox fellowships, you use that as an opportunity to find your scientist in charge here.
Go back to insert name of institution here and then write your Marie Curie and then come and get paid for two years.
I mean, it works for me. Yeah. And what you mean?
What we're doing is we're using European money to actually do the things that we want to do, which are to build those proper deep collaborations.
Research professional has loads and loads of opportunities, all sorts of random stuff on other international funders who can and there.
So the search terms you can put in are so random.
And there's always there's always one person who will fund the random thing you can think of, and I think it's a competition we should run.
So finally, we see the some. The future of UK-Africa research funding.
Well, I think it's right here in this room, but in Oxford, so you know, Oxford takes this very seriously.
Fox is that kind of beacon that says, OK, we're serious about this.
This is something that is important. And so the university supports that financially.
We can say not only that, though, apart from, you know, helping fund some of the fox activities.
We also have internet policy proposals so that people who are trying to build these things or, you know,
have stopped research programmes or whatever they can apply for funding in order to get those going.
Although I have to say we've just been somewhat overwhelmed, we thought we'd have a little, a little little small interim call.
How many times have you seen some 70 something?
We thought we'd get about 10, 70 or so.
That's going to take some sorting out anyway, but we aren't doing that.
There are national and international sources of funding to do this.
Interestingly, the new internationalisation agenda that the U.K. now has, I mean,
there's a sort of irony of what's coming out of one international kind of grouping of the EU.
The very much the discourse is that we will be open to the world.
Luckily, the government the government is doing and is putting some money behind the fund for international collaboration.
Some of the people, we need to keep pushing them on this agenda and the university very good at doing that sort of lobbying.
But as I said earlier, it's really, really important that that more money come so that we can actually do this great stuff.
But I think it's also important that the future plans of the government and the funding that goes with that goes beyond ODI.
I don't think that the future certainly of Oxford relationship with Africa should be based purely on ODA research.
Oxford is full of amazing academics and researchers who want to do amazing research into all sorts of stuff.
The some way random stuff that goes on here, and it's amazing.
And you know what? They have counterparts all across Africa who are these amazing researchers who just want to do amazing research on, on, on stuff.
And actually what we need is also funding that can allow those partnerships to arise that we can't we shouldn't,
just shouldn't just base it on the ODI. I think I think it's we should have the partnerships for excellent research and that research should be on.
Anything that excites you. So that's the future plan. Thank you.