Institution Building to Support Equitable Research between Communities and Universities

Our proposed project investigates two community-led initiatives to develop infrastructure to support community-based research—1) a new Equity Center-funded review committee in Charlottesville (the “Residents for Respectful Research (R3) Project”) that reviews and approves proposals for community-based research before university IRB approval can be granted, and 2) a research dissemination network in Gugulethu, Cape Town (the “Street Committee Project”) that leverages existing local governance structures (street committees) to support the dissemination and translation of research findings for the broader community’s use. Both initiatives are efforts to move beyond a reliance on the good intentions, best practices, and resources and capacities of individual researchers and community members and build more sustainable institutional infrastructure to democratize knowledge production.