Facilitating research faculty participation in CBPR: Development of a model based on key informant interviews

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) may enhance the translational research process; however, this would require increased institutional capacity for community engaged research. In this paper, we first present results of key informant interviews with academic health center faculty regarding facilitators to faculty participation in CBPR partnerships and then propose a model arising from these results describing how increased capacity may be achieved. Participants were 13 key informant faculty of varying levels of expertise in CBPR at a large university academic health center. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. A thematic content analysis of each interview was conducted by research team members. Facilitators reported by faculty representing five health science schools were grouped into five thematic areas: (1) researcher personal attributes including an innate orientation toward working with community, (2) positive attitudes toward collaboration, (3) a partnership-building skill set, (4) community partners who are ready and eager to collaborate, and (5) supportive institutional policies and procedures. We propose a model describing the relationship between personal attributes, learned/environmental factors, and community facilitators that may be utilized to promote increased institutional capacity for CBPR and thus increase the likelihood of the successful translation of research findings into community settings.