Why an academic and humanitarian technology innovation partnership can become an unhappy marriage.

Abstract

Increasing numbers of collaborations between the humanitarian and academic sector should have led to a significant increase in the amount of quality technology reaching the field and having a scaled impact. It has not. Following on from research with key stakeholders in these collaborations, we lay out the key reasons why there is often such a disconnect between high-level strategic intentions, and practical implementation. These are broken down into misunderstandings over: resources; deployment strategies; and roles and responsibilities. Through articulating such pitfalls, it is hoped that this commentary can contribute to smoother collaborations and greater impact.