Table 1.
Research Relationships and Their Barriers
| Barriers to better relationships | Illustrations of the barriers | Strategies for overcoming the barriers |
|---|---|---|
| Research often makes communities feel like they are being used | i. Researcher outreach to communities is too frequently restricted to times when researchers need something from a community. | 1. Encourage universities to seek relationships with local communities and their organizations before they seek their help with research projects. |
| ii. “Helicopter research,” when researchers come in and ‘extract' what they need from communities but leave little or nothing behind and rarely, if ever, return, is a real occurrence. | 2. Develop mechanisms for bidirectional communication. | |
| Universities are too mysterious | i. Communities have a poor understanding of both the cultures and agendas of research institutions. | 3. Promote transparency about a university's core values and agendas. |
| ii. The “ivory tower” metaphor of universities is often still an apt one. | ||
| Research incentives are often counterproductive to enduring relationships | i. Grants that fund research that involves community participation are time‐limited. | 4. Realign rewards for researchers so that they will have incentives to establish relationships with local communities. |
| ii. Researchers are rewarded for publications for their peers, not communications with lay audiences. | ||
| iii. Federal funding has restrictions, such as limitations on food purchases that make funding community gatherings difficult. | ||
| The research playing field is uneven (and often unfair) | i. Researchers receive immediate rewards from research, such as funding and career advancement. Research institutions benefit from research through indirect funds, prestige, intellectual property rights, and other tangible rewards. | 5. Implement measures that will place researchers and communities on a more equal footing with one another. |
| ii. Given the uncertain nature of scientific progress, communities must patiently wait for benefits. | ||
| iii. Communities must learn that “research takes a long time to pay off.” |