Building partnership capacity to prepare federal grant proposals: Community-engaged research team support (CERTS)

Community-Engaged Research Team Support (CERTS) was a dynamic pilot training program for community-academic research teams. Led by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the goals of the intensive year-long program (7/11 - 6/12) were to: 1) help community-academic teams build capacity for rigorous community-engaged research (CEnR), and 2) support teams to prepare for federal grant proposal submissions. In addition to providing targeted educational workshops and didactic webinars, CERTS connected teams with mentors, resources, and a collaborative learning environment that helped teams navigate equal partnership. CERTS culminated in an external, mock-proposal review process to prepare teams for successful future grant application development. Very few CEnR training curricula exist; programs that build grant-preparation capacity tend to be aimed at faculty instead of community-academic research teams. The development of CERTS was guided by an advisory committee including community-based organizations, clinical practices, and local Clinical and Translational Science Award recipients – Northwestern, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois- Chicago. This presentation will focus on lessons learned from quantitative and qualitative evaluations, as well as results from a one-year follow up evaluation. At program completion, all teams made large gains in clarifying their research questions and designs and acquired extensive knowledge on the preparation of federal proposals. However, CERTS uncovered gaps in resources and readiness of community-academic teams to be competitive for federal grants. Identified areas of need included mentoring, refining project focus, publishing previous study results, and allocating time for research.