Small CBPR Grants Program: An Innovative Model to Build Sustainable Academic-Community Partnerships.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective approach for addressing health disparities by integrating diverse knowledge and expertise from both academic and community partners throughout the research process. However, more is needed to invest in the foundational infrastructure and resources that are necessary for building and maintaining lasting trusting research partnerships and supporting them to generate impactful CBPR-based research knowledge and solutions. Small CBPR Grants Program is a CBPR-seed-funding program that may be particularly helpful to minority-serving institutions' and universities' goal to invest in genuine community-engaged participatory research. Between 2016 and 2019, the Morgan State University Prevention Sciences Research Center, in collaboration with other community and academic organizations, provided 14 small CBPR awards to new partnerships, and evaluated the success and challenges of the program over a period of three years. To achieve our goal, technical support and training were provided to these partnerships to help with their growth and success. The expected outcomes included trusting relationships and equitable partnerships, as well as publications, presentations, and new proposals and awards to work on mutually identified issues. The program's resulted in continued partnerships beyond the program (in most cases), a founded CBPR Center namely ASCEND, and several secured additional fundings. Keys to the program's success were supporting the formation of research partnerships through networking opportunities and information sessions, as well as providing small grants to incentivize the development of innovative concepts and projects. A learning network and local support group were also created to enhance productivity and the overall impact of each project.

Building Capacity for Community-Academia Research Partnerships by Establishing a Physical Infrastructure for Community Engagement: Morgan CARES.

Research partnerships between universities and communities following the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR) have the potential to eliminate cycles of health disparities. The purpose of this article is to describe the process of establishing a community-campus network with a distinct mission and vision of developing trusting and successful research partnerships that are sustained and effective. In 2019, Morgan CARES was established to facilitate community engagement by founding a community center "within" a low-income residential neighborhood as a safe and accessible hub for creating a vibrant learning community. A community needs assessment and asset mapping was conducted and several necessary resources and services were provided to maximize networking opportunities, nurture innovative ideas and proposals, and provide seed funding. Lessons learned informed the optimization of a theoretical model that has guided the development and implementation of the program's key components. By December 2021, Morgan CARES had recruited 222 community and 137 academic members representing diverse expertise from across Baltimore City. We also successfully established new partnerships and funded a total of 17 small community-academic awards. Although in its early stages, Morgan CARES has established a dynamic learning community following a conceptual framework that could guide future similar initiatives.

Enhancing grant-writing expertise in BUILD institutions: Building infrastructure leading to diversity.

BACKGROUND: The lack of race/ethnic and gender diversity in grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a persistent challenge related to career advancement and the quality and relevance of health research. We describe pilot programs at nine institutions supported by the NIH-sponsored Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) program aimed at increasing diversity in biomedical research. METHODS: We collected data from the 2016-2017 Higher Education Research Institute survey of faculty and NIH progress reports for the first four years of the program (2015-2018). We then conducted descriptive analyses of data from the nine BUILD institutions that had collected data and evaluated which activities were associated with research productivity. We used Poisson regression and rate ratios of the numbers of BUILD pilots funded, students included, abstracts, presentations, publications, and submitted and funded grant proposals. RESULTS: Teaching workshops were associated with more abstracts (RR 4.04, 95% CI 2.21-8.09). Workshops on grant writing were associated with more publications (RR 2.64, 95% CI 1.64-4.34) and marginally with marginally more presentations. Incentives to develop courses were associated with more abstracts published (RR 4.33, 95% CI 2.56-7.75). Workshops on research skills and other incentives were not associated with any positive effects. CONCLUSIONS: Pilot interventions show promise in supporting diversity in NIH-level research. Longitudinal modeling that considers time lags in career development in moving from project development to grants submissions can provide more direction for future diversity pilot interventions.

Local health department perspectives on linkages among birthing hospitals.

OBJECTIVES: To describe perinatal linkages among hospitals, changes in their numbers and their impact on relationships among high-risk providers in local communities. STUDY DESIGN: Data were obtained about the organization of perinatal services in 1996-1999 from a cross-sectional study evaluating fetal and infant mortality review (FIMR) programs nationwide. Geographic areas were sampled based on region, population density, and the presence of a FIMR. A local health department representative was interviewed in 76% (N=193) of eligible communities; 188 provided data about hospitals. RESULTS: Linkages among all hospitals were reported in 143 communities and with a subspecialty hospital in 122. All but 12 communities had a maternity hospital, and changes in the number of hospitals occurred in 49 communities. Decreases in the number of Level II hospitals were related to changes in relationships among providers of high-risk care for mothers and newborns; they were associated with changing relationships only for mothers in Level I hospitals. These relations were noted only where established provider relationships existed. CONCLUSIONS: Decreases in the number of maternity hospitals affect provider relationships in communities, but only where there are established linkages among hospitals.