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There are still many barriers and challenges to community engaged research. Navigating institutional barriers such as funding, IRBs, and equitable compensation are just a few. Below are some resources to better understand and navigate these aspects of this work!

Working with the IRB

Challenges and recommendations to improve institutional review boards’ review of community-engaged research proposals: A scoping review

Onakomaiya, D., Pan, J., Roberts, T., Tan, H., Nadkarni, S., Godina, M., Park, J., Fraser, M., Kwon, S. C., Schoenthaler, A., & Islam, N. (2023). Challenges and recommendations to improve institutional review boards' review of community-engaged research proposals: A scoping review. Journal of clinical and translational science, 7(1), e93. https://doi.org/10.1017/cts.2023.516

Resources for Evaluating Your Community Engagement

Community Engagement in Research Index

Patient and public engagement in research and health system decision making: A systematic review of evaluation tools

Boivin, A., A. L’Espérance, F. Gauvin, V. Dumez, A. C. Macaulay, P. Lehoux, and J. Abelson. 2018. Patient and public engagement in research and health system decision making: A systematic review of evaluation tools. Health Expect 21(6):1075-1084. http://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12804

On Measuring Community Participation in Research

Khodyakov, D., S. Stockdale, A. Jones, J. Mango, F. Jones, and E. Lizaola. 2012. On measuring community participation in research. Health Education & Behavior 40(3):346-354. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198112459050

Funding Community Engagement in Research

Federal Funding

Funding Opportunities | Patient Centered Outcomes Research Initiative (PCORI)

PCORI funds patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER), issuing funding opportunity announcements several times each year. PCORI also funds projects that support CER, such as methodology studies, as well as projects that support engagement in research and dissemination and implementation of PCORI-funded research findings.

Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) | NIH Common Fund

To advance the science of health disparities and advance health equity research, the NIH Common Fund launched the Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) Program. The goals of ComPASS are to 1) develop, share, and evaluate community-led health equity structural interventions that leverage partnerships across multiple sectors to reduce health disparities and 2) develop a new health equity research model for community-led, multisectoral structural intervention research across NIH and other federal agencies.

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative | NIH HEAL Initiative

The Helping to End Addiction Long-term^® Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative^®, is an NIH-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Almost every NIH Institute and Center is accelerating research to address this public health emergency from all angles.

The initiative funds over 1,000 projects nationwide. Researchers are taking a variety of approaches to address the opioid epidemic through:

Understanding, managing, and treating pain
Improving prevention and treatment for opioid misuse and addiction

Community-Based Participatory Research Program (CBPR) | National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

The NIMHD Community-Based Participatory Research Program (CBPR) supports collaborative interventions that involve scientific researchers and community members to address diseases and conditions disproportionately affecting populations experiencing health disparities. Recognizing the strength of each partner, scientific researchers across multiple disciplines and community members collaborate on all aspects of the project, which may include a needs assessment, planning, research intervention design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of community-level interventions. The community is involved in the CBPR program as an equal partner with the scientists. This helps ensure that interventions created are responsive to the community’s needs.

Regional Pilot Funding

Pilot Projects Program | Northern New England Clinical & Translational Research Network (NNE-CTR)

COBRE in Acute Care Research & Rural Disparities | MHIR

Funding Opportunities | Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (Tufts CTSI)

Foundations & Other Private Donors

Directory of Maine Grantmakers

Candid. Foundation Directory

Compensating Community Engagement in Research

Equitable Compensation for Community Engagement Guidebook | Urban Institute

This toolkit includes practical guidance and approaches for creating an equitable compensation plan for your organization’s community-partnered research projects.

Offering Proper Partner Compensation for Community Engaged Research: CEACR Speaker Series June 2022

Beyond incentives for involvement to compensation for consultants: increasing equity in CBPR approaches

Black KZ, Hardy CY, De Marco M, Ammerman AS, Corbie-Smith G, Council B, Ellis D, Eng E, Harris B, Jackson M, Jean-Baptiste J, Kearney W, Legerton M, Parker D, Wynn M, Lightfoot A. Beyond incentives for involvement to compensation for consultants: increasing equity in CBPR approaches. Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2013 Fall;7(3):263-70. doi: 10.1353/cpr.2013.0040. PMID: 24056508; PMCID: PMC4783164.

Recognizing Cross-Institutional Fiscal and Administrative Barriers and Facilitators to Conducting Community-Engaged Clinical and Translational Research

Carter-Edwards, Lori PhD, MPH; Grewe, Mary E. MPH; Fair, Alecia M. DrPH; Jenkins, Carolyn DrPH, MSN, RN, RD; Ray, Natasha J. MS; Bilheimer, Alicia MPH; Dave, Gaurav MD, DrPH; Nunez-Smith, Marcella MD, MHS; Richmond, Alan MSW; Wilkins, Consuelo H. MD, MSCI. Recognizing Cross-Institutional Fiscal and Administrative Barriers and Facilitators to Conducting Community-Engaged Clinical and Translational Research. Academic Medicine 96(4):p 558-567, April 2021. | DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003893

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