Community-research partnerships: Importance of research capacity to address research skill-related power differentials

Background. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are essential partners in community-engaged research. Yet little is known about their research capacity, and no validated or standard capacity measures exist. Our purpose was to pilot the Community REsearch Activity assessment Tool (CREAT), a multi-domain CBO research capacity survey designed to assess organizational research experience, activities, and needs. Methods. Thirty-minute interviewer-administered quantitative surveys were conducted with executive directors of 26 CBOs and 4 local health departments affiliated with an HIV/AIDS community-academic partnership program (>95% response rate). Simple descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted. Results. Although only 5 of 30 organizations had successfully received research grant funding as lead organizations, 87% of the respondents reported that research is important to the work of their organization. 70% reported research is integrated into the work of the organization. 60% reported they are “very interested” in strengthening research capacity. 97% had worked with external researchers. Those who reported working with researchers as equal partners (66%) were more likely to have submitted research grants as the lead organization (26% vs. 0%; p=0.098) and to have co-authored a research grant for <$0,000 (78.9% vs. 40%; p=0.047). Conclusions. Results revealed that many CBOs with non-research missions see research as important to the work of their organizations, engage in research partnerships, and are interested in building research capacity. This presentation will discuss implications for addressing CBO research capacity needs, equitable and effective community-academic research partnerships, and future instrument validity testing.