Re-imagining Health Research Partnership in a Post-COVID World: A Response to Recent Commentaries

If there was ever a time to rethink many of the research paradigms under which we have been operating,1 it is at this time of global upheaval as the world continues to struggle with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. At the time our research “Experience of health leadership in partnering with university-based researchers in Canada – a call to ‘re-imagine’ research” was published,2 we did not know to what extent experiences with research partnerships reported by many in Canada would resonate with a broader audience, or in other areas of the world. Commentaries from experts working with many different health systems indicate that, unfortunately, the challenges we reported are not unique to Canada. At the same time, we were deeply encouraged by the insights offered by these commentators, which both broadened and deepened the conversation we had hoped to initiate through this publication.