International Joint Programming as an Underestimated Case of Science Diplomacy

International research collaborations have seen an enormous rise in recent years, but we should not think of them as a given. Numerous issues need to be resolved, such as legal frameworks to safeguard collaboration, specific modes of funding, questions of the type of institutional configuration and not least quality issues. Science and foreign policy actors from different national states and/or international organisations must reach a common understanding before, during and after international research programming. This presentation will discuss empirical insights from international research programming that must integrate the logics of politics and science, i.e. foreign offices and science ministries, funding agencies and scientific peers. The focus will lie on the social process of how modes of international research programming are agreed upon and actually set up, acknowledging that the various logics and lifeworld interpretations of actors must be bridged in the absence of clearly applicable and accepted rules. In this respect, international joint programming poses one of the most common cases, but also the most underestimated challenges in science diplomacy that needs to bridge domestic and foreign policy interests on the one hand, as well as political and scientific constraints and convictions as regards the role, purpose and different quality assumptions of jointly funded international research undertakings. This might be the case in particular – and as presented – when actors from rich and poor, politically stable and fragile countries aim for jointly funded research partnerships. The presentation will argue for the necessity of a strengthened mutual exchange of best practices in research programming and in questions pertaining to research quality/integrity in order to allow for well-functioning international research collaborations.