Geopolitically powerful actors in countries linked to the global North have historically shaped the landscape of North-South research cooperation. The literature documents not only the pervasiveness of asymmetrical relationships in North-South research cooperation but also a growing recognition among policy and academic actors of these dynamics. In this context, this study traces the invention of the Norwegian "South-South-North" partnership model, which was envisaged as an alternative to mainstream approaches and sought to foreground the needs and priorities of researchers in the global South. Employing the conceptual perspective of policy ideas, this study identifies three ideas that were constitutive of the model: humanitarianism, enlightened self-interested, and international reputation building. Functioning as broad public philosophies, these ideas underpinned the adoption of the South-South-North model as a distinctively Norwegian approach to research capacity building in the global South.