Multi-level challenges of creating and sustaining community-engaged university researchers in community-university relationships

Background: Creating and sustaining collaborations between community-based organizations (CBO) and university researchers in community-engaged research (CER) requires commitments from both groups. Few studies have explored how, and to what extent, such research partnerships help both partners achieve their career goals and organizational missions. To gain a greater understanding of these experiences, we assessed the perspectives of community leaders and university researchers conducting CER in a medium-sized city with a history of community-university tension. Methods: We performed qualitative key informant interviews and purposeful, snowball sampling. A CBO researcher interviewed 10 CBO leaders, and a university researcher interviewed 10 community-engaged university researchers. We audio-taped and professionally transcribed interviews. Our team of experts in organizational theory and community-based participatory research performed analyses using the constant comparative method. Interviews continued until we reached thematic saturation. Results: Themes revealed multilevel challenges for supporting community-engaged university researchers in sustainable community-university relationships, specifically the relationships between the 1) university researcher and community leader, including the interpersonal relationship and the influence of the past on their current research relationship; 2) university researcher and his or her institution, including the professional and financial investment of the university in the researcher; and 3) university and CBOs, including differences in mission, including any tensions historically in the relationship between the institutions, and the view of community-engaged university researchers as different from other university researchers. Conclusion: Many challenges exist in developing and sustaining university researchers in community-university partnerships. Interventions are needed at multiple levels, within and between institutions, to improve these partnerships.