The Ivory Tower and the Challenges of Collaborative Research

This study explores researchers' understandings of and experiences with collaborative research. Findings suggest that academic reward structures restrict the ability of academic researchers to become involved in truly collaborative relationships thus limiting the potential of these types of projects. In the last two decades there has been an increased interest in collaborative relationships between universities and other sectors of society. In research, the "partnership trend" has translated into collaborative research projects between university-based and non university-based researchers. This paper describes the experiences and understandings of university-based and non university- based researchers doing collaborative work. Special emphasis is given to the academic reward systems that influence the ability of university-based researchers to engage in collaborative research. Literature Review Feminist researchers have long focused on relationships as the basis for knowledge generation. They argue that researchers build relationships with participants and with one another when involved in research (Tom & Herbert, 2002; Tom et. al. 1994). Relationships profoundly influence the approach and therefore the results of a research project. One relationship that has been under-examined in the literature has been that among researchers based in different institutions. Researchers need to make shared project related decisions that can be suitable for organizations with different reward systems. Values, demands and expectations are quite different in a university setting for example than in other organizations. These differences add a specific layer to the collaborative relationships between researchers located in different institutions. Academia and Collaborative Research An examination of the literature on collaborative research reveals that researchers, especially those working in the university, have found that academic practices are not always in harmony with the demands of collaborative work. The emphasis of collaboration is to work with others; individual expectations and rewards are negotiated so that the collaboration can be successful. Academic culture, in contrast, is mostly based on individual work, achievements and rewards. Researchers are pressured to adapt their work to meet the requirements of funders (Porter, 1997). Mainstream understandings of knowledge and research, represented by funding and publishing requirements, exclude non-traditional ways of knowing (Kuokkanen, 2005). Universities have become dissociated from their main role, service to society, becoming autopoetic organizations in which "a narrow group of socially interdependent individuals generate standards for each other and judge each other's performance without regard to their contextualization within the interests of society at large" (Greenwood & Levin, 2000, p.104). Certain academic practices, such as peer review can be seen as one of the professional structures built into most academic