Research Universities and Academic Renaissance in the Global South: Lessons from Bangladesh explores how, through continuous innovation, solving challenging problems, and transforming outmoded thinking, knowledge opens up limitless opportunities while providing asymmetric strength to those (individuals, institutions, and nations) who possess it. From a global perspective, such asymmetries create dependencies and perpetuate the West’s colonial aspirations, enabling it to exert influence and exact a heavy price. This volume contends that the Global South must develop its own countervailing knowledge assets, best expressed through establishing a few high quality research universities at the outset, embedded in a carefully nurtured ecosystem and a strong research culture that values curiosity, creativity and commitment. The state of Bangladesh’s universities provides a canvas to examine the challenges facing research in the region that developing nations can address creatively to expedite building a knowledge edifice for self-reliance and national pride.