Qualitative research capacity build-ing: Reflections from a UK-Kyrgyz Republic global partnership

Researchers have emphasised the practicalities associated with building global research partnerships, including ensuring good communication and having equitable relationships [1-3]. These challenges are complicated by cross-national inequities and perceived power dynamics, further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic [4]. However, the existing literature on the challenges of global health partnership working largely avoids ‘the elephant in the room’; that is to say, the practicalities of doing the research itself [2,5]. Moreover, there is an implicit but false assumption that research methods are culturally neutral, when in reality the dominant modes of enquiry vary across time and space. Addressing these issues is therefore crucial to the mission of global health and the process of decentralising and democratising knowledge platforms [5-7]. Consequently, the aim of this viewpoint is to reflect on the practical and real-world challenges of combining empirical research with capacity building to inform future global health research partnerships.