Development‐oriented funding schemes such as the UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) have opened up opportunities for collaborations between low‐middle income countries (LMICs) and high‐income country (HIC) researchers. In particular, funding for medical technology research has seen a rise in previously under‐represented disciplines such as physics and engineering. These collaborations have considerable potential to advance healthcare in LMICs, yet can pose challenges experienced to researchers undertaking these collaborations. Key challenges include a lack of tradition of HIC/LMIC collaborations within participating departments, lack of experience with development agendas, designing contextually‐appropriate technologies and ensuring long‐term viability of research outputs. This paper reflects on these key challenges, using the experiences of the authors on the Open Laboratory Instrumentation (OLI) project as a focalizing lens. This project was a GCRF‐funded collaboration between physicists in the UK and engineers in Tanzania to develop an open‐source, 3D‐printed, fully‐automated laboratory microscope. The paper highlights key ethics lessons learnt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]