Current status and perceived challenges of collaborative research in a leading pharmacy college in Iraq: a qualitative study.

Background: Interdisciplinary collaboration among academic pharmacists is crucial for enhancing scientific research, discovering new drugs and modifying existing ones, besides solving pharmaceutical problems. This study aimed to explore the perception and experience of academic pharmacists regarding research collaboration.

Methods: A qualitative study through one-to-one face-to-face interviews with faculty members at the University of Baghdad/College of Pharmacy was conducted from May to July/2023. Purposive and convenience strategies were used to enroll study participants. Thematic-analysis approach was used to analyze the data.

Results: Twenty-four faculty members were interviewed. Most participants were female with ≥ 10 years of academic experience. Five themes emerged from the obtained data. The first theme, entitled the collaborative research was conducted at three different levels: college, national, and to a lesser extent, international. The second theme was facilitators of collaborative research. This theme includes two subthemes the reasons behind research collaboration and the encouraging characteristics of the researcher. Seeking scientific and technical support were the main reported reasons behind domestic collaborations, while supervising postgraduate students was the main reason for international collaborations. The third theme was the barriers to collaborative research. The complicated-university laws, besides limited-resources & funds, were barriers to collaborative research. Academic workload was the main challenge for domestic collaborations, whereas poor professional-networking was the main challenge for international collaborations. Ethical challenge in collaborative research was the fourth study theme. The last theme was the recommendations to improve future research collaboration. In this regard, most participants recommended enhancing academics' research-skills, increasing research funding, and simplifying regulatory issues to improve collaborative research.

Conclusion: Research collaborations occur at the domestic and, to a limited extent, at the international level. Academic workload, shortage of resources, and complicated university regulations are the main challenges for research collaborations. Enhancing research-skills, increasing research funding, and simplifying university regulations can improve research collaborations.