Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships: A Global Research Study

While Community Based Research (CBR) in its many varieties has been in existence for 35 years or so, the past 10 years have seen an emergence of a new set of institutional arrangements and structures designed to overcome some of the constraints that have limited the full potential of CBR. These new structures with specialized knowledge of how to create community university research partnerships have been located in universities (such as the Office of Community- Based Research at the University of Victoria) in community organizations (such as PRIA in India) and in networks (such as the National Coordinating Council for Public Engagement in Higher Education in the UK). Our study is focused on these new structures and the associated policies. The mainstreaming of community-based research linked to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is constrained by a number of roadblocks. There is a severe Underestimate of the skills and time required to jointly develop a research question for the most impact in the community. While new administrative structures have emerged to deal with this issue in some universities, most universities do not yet have a dedicated institutional capacity to facilitate Community-University research partnerships.
Therefore, Strengthening Community University Research Partnerships' is a global study of institutional arrangements for the facilitation and support of research partnership between community groups and universities. This project is an initiative of the UNESCO Chair of Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education and is funded in part by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) with significant additional in-kind resources from the University of Victoria, the University of Makerere, the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, the Centro Boliviano de Estudios Multidisciplinarios (CEBEM) and a number of regional and global networking organizations including the Living Knowledge Network, Talloires Network, and PASCAL Observatories.

Objectives

• Develop an understanding of how research partnerships are initiated, supported, and evaluated through a comparative study of different types of institutional arrangements;
• Promote awareness of the significance and appropriateness of creating and/or supporting such enabling structures amongst decision-makers in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Global South;
• Mobilize knowledge for practitioner and policy actions in creating appropriate structures in different countries through the identification of best practices and recommendations.

Geographical spread

The country case studies which have contributed to this global project include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Netherlands, South Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Methodology / Key components

This research component in this project includes the global survey (disseminated worldwide), which was followed with an assessment of the findings and its collation in the form of a report, which has been uploaded on the UNESCO Chair website. Additionally, the 12 case studies also contribute to the research component (prepared by local knowledge experts). The policy dialogues contributed to the advocacy done under the project.

Key outputs / Deliverables

• The e-publication of the results of the first global survey of facilitative structures for community-university research partnerships
• Creation and dissemination of policy briefs on community-university research partnerships for the higher education sector, civil society sector, national governments, intergovernmental bodies and funding agencies.
• Publication of a practical e-book/Manual of "Facilitating community-university research partnerships.
• Publication of an e-book on "Mainstreaming Community-Based Research: Lessons on facilitating research partnerships

Outputs

A number of institutions and network covered world-wide through the global survey and 12 countries selected for documentation of their respective practices (related to community university research partnerships) in the form of case studies.

The global survey on community university research partnerships and the country case studies have played an important role in knowledge generation over institutional structures promoting such partnerships

Year/period

April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015.