International research collaboration in personalized medicine between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract An analysis of research collaboration in personalized medicine between European and Latin American and Caribbean countries has been conducted in order to identify significant aspects allowing such collaboration. It aims to comprehend strategic issues for establishing research collaborations in personalized medicine between the two regions, as well as the structural factors that facilitate the collaboration. An exhaustive literature review of the subject was the basis for the development of a framework covering several factors that are significant at different stages of the collaboration process. The framework assisted in developing a questionnaire and defining relevant questions for a final survey, which was sent to more than 1,800 corresponding authors of publications resulting from collaborations between European and Latin American and Caribbean researchers. The results point out interesting issues like the profile of the collaboration partners, types of research collaboration, factors and motivations favouring the participation in collaborative research, ways to contact partners, funding sources and tools, main outputs or principal barriers to collaboration. Due to the lack of available information on research collaborations in the field of personalized medicine, this type of analysis is valuable to support science and research policy-making and to evaluate the various actions, initiatives and projects carried out in this scenario. Although our methodology and analysis focused on the field of personalized medicine, the results obtained could be helpful to better understand the reality of international scientific collaborations and support the design of collaborative funding programmes in other fields.