An architecture understood: effective support structures for community-university partnerships

Good architectural design is fundamental to the successful construction, maintenance and liveability of a home. Likewise, the appropriate architecture is necessary in instituting policies and programmes that deepen, broaden, improve and sustain community–university research partnerships. The good news is that much is known about how to design effective support structures to foster and nurture these partnerships.

This chapter reviews ten proven examples of such structures, all drawn from the Global North. These structures operate variously at the macro (national or multinational), meso and micro levels. The chapter also discusses strategies and tools for evaluating partnerships that can be used by support structures. Finally, the chapter addresses the question of how the Global South can institute support structures to promote community–university research partnerships in poor emerging countries, building on the experience of the North.