Wednesday, 4th June 2025
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (BST)
Judy Dunn Room, SGDP Building, Ground Floor
The need for more equitable partnerships in global health research is increasingly being recognised and valued. Influential organisations such as UKRI are exploring mechanisms to promote fairness and balance in global health collaborations. However, significant challenges remain. Outdated notions such as “he who pays the piper calls the tune” continue to influence partnerships, and embedding equity into the practical workings of collaborative research remains a complex task.
Insights from the Global South highlight what research funders and intermediary organisations can do to foster truly equitable partnerships—ones that create a “win-win situation” for all involved. Experience shows that the integration of research, ethics, and community engagement and involvement (CEI) is central to building successful global health collaborations.
A powerful example of such an approach is the 25-year partnership between the Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social Care (IRD) and the Sri Lankan Twin Registry, which has cultivated mutually respectful and productive relationships with high-income country (HIC) institutions. These include King’s College London, Keele University, the University of Bristol, and the University of Liverpool, supported by charitable research funding from the UK.
About the speaker
Prof. Athula Sumathipala is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, Keele University, and an Emeritus Professor of Global Mental Health at Kings College, London. He established and is currently the Director of the Institute for Research & Development in Social Care, Sri Lanka (IRD) (www.ird.lk). He founded the Sri Lankan Twin Registry and leads the Colombo Twin and Singleton Study (COTASS).
He is internationally recognised for his pioneering research on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the treatment of Medically Unexplained Symptoms. His research interests are centred on epidemiology of chronic disease and multi-morbidity, especially physical and mental illness combinations; evaluation and implementation of complex interventions, using twin methods in the study of illness aetiology and ethics related to research.
