Working with External and Community Partners

Last week, ORDE offered a seminar that featured a panel of PIs who have done extensive work with community groups and external partners, including the federal and state government and tribal groups. The diverse panel was made up of Barbara Paradiso, Director of the Center on Domestic Violence in the School of Public Affairs, Timberley Roane, Associate Professor of Integrative Biology, and Ekaterini Vlahos, Professor and Chair of Architecture. Each of these PIs has also maintained an impressive record of funding in their work with external partners. It was a wonderful panel of experts and I wanted to share some of the nuggets of advice they had for other PIs looking to collaborate with external partners, particularly in funded research.

Discuss the needs and expectations of each group upfront
Key to developing a collaboration that is productive and benefits everyone is to begin by identifying how it can benefit everyone. When researchers swoop into a community to collect data and then leave, it creates a sense in that community that they were used for the researcher's own gains. But when a researcher begins the collaboration with an open discussion about what they need and what the community needs and all partners design the project to meet each group's needs, the results will be that much more robust and the relationship will be maintained.

Also, make sure that expectations are clear. What do you expect to publish on? Is the community comfortable with it? Do they understand that you will publish objectively even if the results do point to a problem within an organization? Do you understand what your partner is comfortable sharing/disclosing with you in your research? Having these conversations at the forefront can help you to better navigate the collaboration, holding each participant's needs and expectations in mind.

Build relationships and show up
As you are working with external partners, be sure to keep open communication. If you see something in your results that will concern your partner, share that with them sooner than later. Also, make an investment in your partnership by showing up. Go to community meetings. Invite community leaders to your presentations. Offer non-academic presentations on your work to better engage your partners.

Find the joy
Going into a partnership and seeing it as a burden, e.g., thinking, "I wish I didn't have to work with these people to do this project!" is probably an indicator that collaborative research or at least community research is not for you. There is great joy in working with community and external partners successfully. You are able to see and feel the impact of your collaborative research project as it goes. Collaboration can also make your research more dynamic, as you may consider practice and implications for your research in a very tangible way.

Many agencies are demanding more collaborative research, and that done in partnership with community and external groups. But the benefits of collaboration to your research go well beyond the competitive edge gained.

Resources
The Challenges of Collaboration for Academic and Community Partners in a Research Partnership - NCBI
Team Science Toolkit - NCI