Lessons Learned From Virtual Collaborations Piloting Online Platforms for Practicing and Promoting Community-Based Participatory Research

During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers, limited by restrictions to in-person meetings and relationship building, were urged to develop novel ways to engage communities in community-based participatory research (CBPR) efforts and saw the pressing need to ensure that more researchers were equipped to engage in CBPR themselves. In this manuscript, we describe a participatory and virtual initiative conducted during the pandemic, aimed to enhance community-engaged research efforts. This project piloted and developed 1) an infrastructure for virtual research idea generation, 2) processes for virtually building the capacity of researchers and community stakeholders to conduct CBPR, 3) an online resource hub for teams interested in further developing such research. This paper details the taskforce model that guided these initiatives, outcomes from participants on virtual processes, and a discussion on the importance of maintaining core principles of engagement traditionally leveraged in-person when transferring work to online spaces, attributing this to the success of the virtual engagement pilot projects. The paper also highlights challenges with online processes for virtual engagement, and other limitations that may have surfaced regardless of digital or in-person implementation that may be helpful considerations for community-engaged researchers doing similar work, such as the importance of recognizing the responsibility researchers have to consistently acknowledge harmful power dynamics and how to sustain engagement after unique events and projects.