Application of the innovation systems framework in North-South research

This paper discusses the evolution of a development assistance research programme in South Asia. The programme supports North-South collaboration in the area of crop post-harvest issues. A novelty of the programme is the way it commissioned policy research on institutional issues impinging on the success of the research projects it commissioned. Through this and other learning activities, the programme has evolved the underlying principles of its approach, recently giving much more emphasis to the role of partnerships and institutional contexts in the planning and execution of its work. Underpinning this has been an exploration and application of the innovation systems framework. Lessons include the need to see North-South research collaboration in terms of its capacity development effects on national systems of partners and processes concerned with the development and use of innovations. Development assistance agencies should pay attention to the importance of engaging in their own institutional learning if they want to make more effective contributions to sustainable development through North-South research partnerships.