摘要：Issues in the area of international health research are insufficiently discussed in Latin America. We examine the practices of stakeholders such as the state and the academic community regarding research policy processes and funding sources in Peru. Our findings showed that research policy development and evaluation processes are poor in Peru, most of the country's academic research is published in English only, and researchers' access to funding is limited. Given that the relationship between local academic institutions and foreign research centers is key in developing a “national science,” there is a clear need to reinforce the state's capacities for management and research oversight and implementation and to encourage the academic community to improve their institutional policies and research frameworks. In Peru, much-needed debates on the complex relationships between local and global production of health research (particularly in the area of public health) have not taken place. For instance, little attention has been focused on how the research priorities and agendas of global research organizations, along with their funding mechanisms, affect research projects at the local level. In addition, if concepts such as locally defined research questions and national research priorities are continually invoked, the meanings of “local” and “national” must be comprehensively assessed. Likewise, one may wonder what the negotiated stakes are that define a research problem as local or national while still generating the interest of international funders. Since Cueto's landmark study on the development of research in some of Peru's universities 2 decades ago, 1 little has been published or discussed about the topic. With the recent increase in global research collaboration arrangements, 2 such discussions are even more urgent. Research, far from being simply a technical activity, involves a series of political, institutional, economic, and cultural variables. 3 Such lines of inquiry might be relevant for a number of lower income and middle-income countries where, as in Peru, health research is far from being a priority. A recent report on health research and development in Latin America noted that, despite distinct levels of advancement, “there is a need to establish research priorities at the country level in order to develop a national research action programme.” 4 (p13) However, in explaining the ways in which health research priorities are set, the authors of the report also acknowledged that funding and donor practices shape national research agendas and that inequitable partnerships erode countries' research capacities. 5 The goals and routes of research development processes cannot be regarded as necessarily equal in all countries. 6 Thus, here we analyze the development of health research in Peru as a case study. In addition to focusing on the mission of scientific research, particularly studies in the area of public health, we assess the current research context in Peru and examine the roles of research stakeholders. Potential areas of future change are addressed as well.
