How does CBPR fit (or not) into CTSAs: The Michigan case

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Translation Science Award (CTSA) program has funded 46 medical research institutions to accelerate the translation of science to improve human health. The CTSA Community Engagement (CE) Key Function Committee, for example, is charged with sharing knowledge, expertise and resources about community engaged research practices. At the University of Michigan's CTSA, the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) CE Program strives to build partnerships between communities and academic researchers in clinical and health research. In the community-engaged work supported by MICHR, exists a spectrum of community engagement from research with the community to the more rigorous community-based participatory research (CBPR). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), community-engagement can be defined as “the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people.” This idea of “collaboratively” can be built in various ways along a continuum of engagement. The CE Program works toward every partnership to be grounded in CBPR principles, yet this can pose challenges as each partner brings a different approach and priorities to the table. Some academics are used to working in a “traditional research” framework of “community-placed” while others are progressive and start with the “community-based approach.” The CE Program has learned that through education and modeling of true collaboration, research partnerships can become more equitable, and seeks to provide an infrastructure that encourages true CBPR.