ABSTRACT
Collaboration with Brazilian academics working outside Brazil
Laura C. Rodrigues
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
1. What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of international collaboration?
Advantages:
Complementary Knowledge and Skills
Increase the number of cases available for stud
Access to additional sources of funding
More "know-how" (and skills) on being published in international journals
More "Know-how" (and skills) on being funded by international organizations
Wider perspective on research topics, interpretation etc.
Enjoyable
Disadvantages:
Loss of control of research project (as in any collaboration, only worse)
Difficulty in communication (language, distance, etc)
2. How to go about international collaboration:
To initiate:
Identify groups publishing in your field of interest, showing the necessary skills (in journals or international conferences), get their names and addresses from the papers;
or
Identify institutions that contain the necessary skills and knowledge, and write to the secretary asking for the annual report, which should list the academic staff and their main fields of interest.
and
Contact the person/groups identified, with an exploratory letter asking of potential interest in collaborating with your group. The initial letter should include information about the group, some information about possible future projects, and, to make it attractive, the potential access to data (subjects, results etc)
To negociate:
Conduct negociations about the work slowly, making sure the main points are clarified.
These should cover the research planned, but also concrete problems like budget allocation, process to resolve differences of opinion, authorship of the papers, ownership of data etc.
3. What I, and my department, the Department of Epidemiology and population sciences at the LSHTM has to offer:
I am a senior Lecturer in Communicable Diseases Epidemiology. My main interest is to work out the best epidemiological methods for specific research projects. I have worked mostly in Vaccines and with Communicable Diseases (measles, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal illness, HIV infection); my main interest is in the methodological challenges. I am very involved in teaching epidemiology - I coordinate the Master Course in Communicable Diseases Epidemiology; supervise PhD students at the LSHTM or as sanduiche from a brazilian University.
The Communicable Disease (CD) Epidemiology Unit has a mission to develop research in teaching in CD in England, in Europe and in the developing world. The main topics of collaborative research are vaccine preventable diseases, including tuberculosis; leprosy; HIV infection. Gastrointestinal infections, and mathematical modelling, metaanalysis, and the interface between genetics, environment and infections.
The Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences at the LSHTM is the largest in Europe, has a wide range or interests (communicable diseases, chronic diseases, environmental and occupational diseases, maternal, child and women's health, demography etc) it has a major interest in collaborative research, with a growing interest in Latin America. It is a main centre for training in Epidemiology and collaborative work can (but do not need to) include a small or large element of training in epidemiology. The LSHTM has also a large network of collaborators, for the organization of multicentre studies.
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
30 Sept 2011 -
Date of issue
May 1995
