Table 4.

Plans to incorporate CERTS lessons learned into Northwestern activities

Lesson learned	Plans to incorporate CERTS lessons into Northwestern activities
Team collaboration increases through interaction and proposal preparation	Provide joint capacity‐building activities for community and academic partners (e.g., workshops, consultation, mentoring sessions)
Collaboration with academic and community institutions is beneficial to program development	Continue to participate in multi‐institutional networks (e.g., Chicago Consortium for Community Engagement and the Chicago Practice‐Based Research Collaborative) Continue to engage partners from academic and community institutions in project advisory boards
Teams benefit from mentor‐led peer‐group interactions	Incorporate experienced mentors in capacity‐building programs Provide opportunities for peer teams to form relationships and model ways to provide constructive feedback
Teams benefit from funding to support education and proposal preparation	Provide funding to partners to support time to participate in capacity building Provide seed grants/funding to: ‐ Assist with pilot projects and proposal preparation efforts ‐ Convey legitimacy of community‐engaged research to superiors ‐ Hold teams accountable for project completion
Teams have difficulty finding adequate time for research activities	When possible, include funding mechanisms that buy out time Offer workshops/activities at convenient times Ensure project requirements move teams toward research goals (e.g., requiring document drafts rather than progress reports) Provide information tailored to team needs
Some teams need additional training in research methods	Explore options with other university entities to develop targeted training opportunities
Teams need additional journal publications	Provide small grants to assist faculty/teams in preparing journal articles Hold writing retreats (i.e., provide space, food, and technical assistance) Contract with experienced journal reviewers to consult on issues related to article preparation Institute writing program similar to CERTS (e.g., small grants, workshops, and mentor‐peer review of drafted pieces)
Teams need to seek smaller grants before applying for NIH funding	Support teams to identify private and nonfederal funding sources
Teams seldom watched webinars	Focus on providing interactive capacity‐building programming Ensure potential benefit of programming is clear and immediate
Academic partners need additional senior‐level mentors	Include senior‐level faculty in future capacity‐building programs Provide connections to senior faculty for one‐on‐one mentorship Provide opportunities for consultation with visiting senior faculty Recruit senior faculty with community‐engaged research experience Support junior faculty with career development and mentoring skills training
Academic partners need more experience as principal investigators for research grants	Provide funding through seed grants to conduct small projects Provide assistance with locating small foundation sources of funding Pursue opportunities to increase faculty development fellowships (e.g., KL2) and create designated slots for community‐engaged scholars
Academic partners need support for a variety of research career aspirations	Support faculty at the level they need, from applying to foundation funding to seeking NIH funding Acknowledge not all faculty will seek to become NIH‐level researchers or PIs
Community partners need experience to be viewed as credible investigators	Provide opportunities (e.g., seed grant projects) for community partners to play active roles in small projects that help build experience (e.g., managing funds and producing deliverables on a time line)