Moving past 'helicopter research'

 

 

The term 'helicopter research' refers to the tendency of well-resourced scientists to conduct research in less-affluent parts of the world with little or no involvement of, or credit to, local scientists or communities. In her column in Nature this week, Fernanda Adame makes an articulate appeal to end this practice, an appeal that I support fully. 

As a master's student in India, I experienced the powerlessness and frustration that 'helicopter research' brings to those who have the ideas and the hypotheses but not the resources to test them. In fact, I felt immense pressure to publish findings as quickly as possible to avoid being beaten to the post. Unfortunately, this meant that I did not always wait to test my hypotheses as comprehensively as possible. Some Indian geoscientists did get to work with western scientists and teams and were even invited to do so. But I have always felt that they were treated more as drivers or guides than equal intellectual partners in western 'missions' of exploration. Many locals did not actively challenge the practice either: in a context with complex social dynamics and relatively few opportunities, they chose instead to lap up the prestige that interactions with westerners apparently gave them. A more open and collaborative spirit on part of the western scientists would have resulted in not only better science but also an enhanced local scientific capacity.  

But the issue is not simply about westerners beaming themselves into low-income countries. As Adame points out, it is also about how relatively privileged scientists interact with communities within a given country. When my colleagues and I did fieldwork in rural parts of India, we did not really engage with the farmers or villagers despite being an outsider. That we were geologists and not social scientists in no way justified not asking the locals about their understanding of their environment or the groundwater situation that season. There was no reason either for not engaging with local schoolteachers and school children. Thankfully, I have made amends in the rest of my career.

Adame provides a set of five rules to ensure meaningful collaborations and avoid 'helicopter research'. These rules make great sense, and I encourage all researchers to reflect on them and adopt them to the extent possible. As she says, "working with local people is not about charity, but about...ensuring research has an impact on and is valuable to the places we are lucky enough to study."