“you travel faster alone, but further together”: learning from a cross country research collaboration from a british council newton fund grant

Providing universal health coverage (uhc) through better maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health (mncah) can benefit both parties through north–south research collaborations. this paper describes lessons learned from bringing together early career researchers, tutors, consultants and mentors from the united kingdom, kenya, and south africa to work in multidisciplinary teams in a capacitybuilding workshop in johannesburg, coordinated by senior researchers from the three partner countries. we recruited early career researchers and research users from a range of sectors and institutions in the participating countries and offered networking sessions, plenary lectures, group activities and discussions. to encourage bonding and accommodate crosscultural and crossdisciplinary partners, we asked participants to respond to questions relating to research priorities and interventions in order to allocate them into multidisciplinary and crosscountry teams. a follow up meeting took place in london six months later. over the five day initial workshop, discussions informed the development of four draft research proposals. intellectual collaboration, friendship and respect were engendered to sustain future collaborations, and we were able to identify factors which might assist capacitybuilding funders and organizers in future. this was a modestly funded brief intervention, with a followup made possible through the careful stewardship of resources and volunteerism. having low and middleincome countries in the driving seat was a major benefit but not without logistic and financial challenges. lessons learned and followup are described along with recommendations for future funding of partnerships schemes.