The role of academic expertise in humanitarian response

In July, we launched a new Directory of Humanitarian Academic Research Centres in the UK to support the process of locating, and accessing relevant UK humanitarian academic expertise for timely and effective crisis response.

Humanitarian crises require stakeholders with diverse expertise and experiences to come together and develop effective and timely responses. Academic expertise can play a valuable role in highlighting relevant evidence-based interventions or solutions, can support capacity strengthening efforts, and can develop, test and evaluate novel solutions and approaches.

The insights speak to opportunities and considerations relating to UK academia, but are likely to hold for academics in other similar settings.

For details on the scope and aims of the directory, see our previous blog, Mapping Humanitarian Academic Capability in the UK.

What kind of expertise and support do academics bring?

Deciding whether an academic is the right fit and how best to involve them or their team in a humanitarian project can vary with each situation. Some academics are driven by a desire to be closer to real-world impact, often referred to as 'pracademics' – academics who actively engage as practitioners or alongside them. It’s important to understand how an academic or team prefers to contribute and make sure this aligns with a projects’ needs and priorities. Below are some roles and types of expertise that academics are able to contribute to the humanitarian sector.

Insight and knowledge sharing

• Fast information and interpretation: Academics can help quickly synthesise, summarise, and interpret evidence on specific topics for policy teams and other humanitarian actors who are pressed for time. In crisis situations, this rapid provision of expertise can guide immediate decision-making and strategic planning.
• Big picture and impartial view: Humanitarian actors might reach out to an academic to get a comprehensive overview of a domain or topic, or to get an impartial perspective, particularly when existing collaborations involve stakeholders with their own views and agendas. Impartial, evidence-based views can be key, in particular for advocacy efforts.
• In-depth research around problem areas: When developing responses or exploring feasible solutions, there is often a need for detailed research on specific topics or problem areas. Academics can be asked to conduct thorough investigations, providing insights that help shape effective and sustainable interventions.
• Data analysis: Humanitarian organisations frequently collect data for specific purposes. With the correct ethical considerations in place, data collected by humanitarian organisations can be shared with academics for analysis and use in research, contributing to strengthening the evidence base for specific interventions.

Mentoring and upskilling

• Training and capacity building: Government agencies and NGOs may turn to universities to train or upskill staff for emergency response contexts. This can encompass a range of areas, including best practice methods or specific technical skills.
• Academics as mentors: Academics can offer timely guidance, insights or feedback to practitioners to help foster professional growth and development, enhance critical thinking, and provide access to relevant networks and resources.

Project support

• Identify gaps and opportunities: For practitioners looking to develop innovative solutions, academics can offer support by conducting comprehensive needs assessments, literature reviews or trends analyses to highlight areas where current interventions are lacking.
• Development and testing: Academics can also help design and refine innovative solutions by providing scientific validation and iterative feedback.
• Monitoring and evaluation: Academics can assist organisations by providing independent, reliable evaluations of their project outcomes. This can be particularly important for supporting future funding rounds or demonstrating success.

How to seek academic input?

There are a number of ways of engaging academics in humanitarian activities and specific projects. Some of the more frequent ones, as well as strengths and limitations are included below.

• Grant/ contract-based engagement: Involving academics as collaborators on projects provides a structured and formal partnership with clear objectives, deliverables and timelines. A challenge of this approach is that it may be time-consuming due to application processes or administrative requirements, and it may also constrain collaborations to predefined project scopes.
• Pro-bono/ad hoc advice: A rapid engagement approach that allows for an informal and flexible collaboration. However, relying on voluntary contributions may lead to inconsistent availability and commitment due to most academics already having a stretched capacity.
• Advice hubs (such as Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) or COVID-19 Hygiene Hub): In these cases, a funding mechanism is created to enable humanitarians to access free academic support. While such hubs are able to provide direct access to expert academic advice, they may struggle with high demand, potentially limiting access and responsiveness.
• Advisory groups: This approach has the advantage of regularly inviting input from diverse experts, including academics, in a collective setting; this can lead to a greater breadth and depth of views. However, the coordination and management of advisory groups can be time-consuming and require careful consideration of divergent opinions.
• Training development: Academics can also design and deliver tailored training programmes to strengthen the skills and capacity of relevant humanitarian stakeholders and decision-makers. This can also foster ongoing relationships with the academics beyond the course as mentors or advisors. A limitation of this approach is that it requires a significant time and resource investment to both design and deliver such training.
• Contribution to coordination mechanisms (such as Clusters): These integrate specific academic expertise into wider humanitarian coordination efforts to help inform comprehensive and cohesive responses. However, this type of engagement might prove challenging to some academics given the unpredictable nature and rapid pace of humanitarian response.
• Individual consultancies: Some academics may have capacity to take on consultancy projects (this may require them to take time off from academia). Supporting projects as an individual consultant gives academics an opportunity to provide tailored support to projects, but may be financially prohibitive for collaborators.

What to keep in mind before connecting with an academic for your work or challenge?

While engaging with academics in humanitarian response is not new, it is important to consider the specific incentives and frameworks that shape UK academia when considering the suitability of a collaboration.

• Availability and capacity: Academics often have limited availability or capacity to engage in humanitarian work beyond their research and teaching commitments. This can vary based on the size and capacity of their institution and wider team/department, other commitments, as well as their employment status (e.g., whether they are tenured or on short fixed-term contracts). Some academics will have a limited number of consulting days, while others will be required to take leave to support additional contributions.
• Differing incentives and timelines: Academics are typically driven by the pursuit of knowledge, scholarly recognition, and the advancement of theoretical understanding, often with a focus on long-term research projects and peer-reviewed publications. In contrast, humanitarians are more likely to prioritise immediate, practical solutions to meet urgent needs, often working under time constraints and resource limitations. These differing motivations can be constructive when theoretical insights inform practical interventions, but they can also create tensions when the pace and priorities of academic research do not align with the urgent demands of humanitarian work.
• Contracting and cost: Contracting can be a challenging and time-consuming process, especially for smaller organisations which might lack the relevant capacity and resources to dedicate to the process. Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) may represent a less resource-intensive alternative as they are non-binding, but they still offer a clear documentation of each party’s responsibilities. It is usually at this stage that costs are discussed; this might raise significant challenges for humanitarian stakeholders who have no prior experience or understanding of UK academic day rates. Often smaller humanitarian organisations lack the funds to directly contract academics, so their involvement would need to be covered by research grants or additional funds.
• Intellectual property (IP): Ownership of IP can present challenges. UK university contracting structures typically prioritise academic ownership of IP. This aspect may not be fully understood until the contracting stage, leading to additional negotiations for alternative agreements. This issue becomes particularly relevant in collaborations involving local innovators or solutions, where they may seek control over IP rights and require a clear understanding of the implications of IP distribution.
• Bandwidth to support/deliver: While academics bring expertise in their field, humanitarian practitioners hold crucial context-specific knowledge essential for responding to specific crises. Meaningful engagement and collaboration requires sufficient time and support from both parties to discuss, plan, and execute initiatives effectively. This includes aligning strategies, navigating complex crisis dynamics, and adapting approaches to varying geographical, political, social, and legal contexts. The collaborative process should also involve joint problem-solving, resource management, and continuous communication to ensure comprehensive crisis response strategies.
• Shifts in where expertise lies: Humanitarian research and innovation expertise is not confined to academia and certain humanitarian sectors have seen a shift in where new research and developments arise. For example, WASH has seen a rise in new solutions and insight coming from private sector and industry partners. Companies like ARUP, Palintest, Wagtech, and Aquabox are actively contributing solutions that address issues such as sludge management, water quality testing, and filter technologies. Similarly, there has been an increase in global actors such as Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Atlas Logistique, Field Ready, Flowminder, acting as humanitarian learning partners and offering complementary support. Depending on the type of support required, it’s worth considering whether academia is best placed to offer support or whether other ecosystem actors are better placed to do so.

Academic expertise has the potential to enhance the efficacy, effectiveness, acceptability and sustainability of humanitarian response. Nevertheless, careful consideration needs to be paid to how collaborations are formed and who they are formed with to ensure they leverage this potential in a responsible and sustainable way.

To support this process, we have worked with the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) to develop the Directory of Humanitarian Academic Research Centres in the UK. This offers a first step to those unfamiliar with the UK academic environment to identify centres with relevant academic expertise and explore collaboration opportunities.