Collaborative leadership has become increasingly important in the field of medical research, as the scientific and policy communities are urged to provide faster, cheaper and more accessible solutions to global health challenges. The partner organization’s capacity to develop joint visions, set priorities and coordinate resource strategies often determines the success of inter-institutional and inter-sectoral collaborations. Although regarded as beneficial, partnerships often come with a substantial financial and administrative burden for academic institutions. This paper argues that institutional flexibility accommodating global health partnership strategies is largely shaped by resource contexts in which medical schools operate. Upon data analysis of 45 interviews at 3 research intensive medical schools in Canada, this study points to the evolution of the institutional flexibility continuum resulting from the resource-driven interplay of individual and institutional forces. The paper contributes to the evaluation of interdependencies between leadership structures and resource contexts in the process of collaborative strategy building in global health.

Keywords: Collaborative leadership, intra-institutional partnerships, institutional flexibility, global health, academic medical centres.