It is essential that cross-population research is carried out with careful consideration of its ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI). This includes an ethos of trust-building, transparency, bi-directional knowledge sharing, and community engagement. This is especially true in low and middle income (LMIC) settings and in work with minority groups – contexts in which mistrust of researchers is warranted given historical mistreatment and ethical violations. As there is no single overarching legislative framework that covers this area, we draw attention to literature that (i) articulates key issues (e.g., consent-taking, data-sharing, sample governance, equal partnership, capacity building, community engagement, participants’ advisory boards (Akinhanmi et al., 2018; Claw et al., 2018; Parker and Kwiatkowski, 2016) and (ii) proposes effective working solutions to them (Beaton et al., 2017; Campbell et al., 2017; de Vries et al., 2015). Additionally, there is a need to overcome traditional barriers to research empowerment for under-represented groups. H3ABioNet (https://www.h3abionet.org/), GINGER (https://ginger.sph.harvard.edu/), AMARI (https://amari-africa.org/), MIND (https://minds-uf.org/), and BRAIN (https://advance.washington.edu/brains) are examples of initiatives that embed the targeted delivery of skills and training within broader programs of research. Additional funding mechanisms that support such an approach would be particularly beneficial.
