Examining the strategic utilization of Community-Academic Partnerships as a research engagement method in clinical and public health research within urban settings: a qualitative analysis

Community-Academic Partnerships (CAPs) are a promising method for enhancing research engagement among communities of interest, including key populations in clinical and public health research. Expanding the evidence base on utilizing CAPs in clinical and public health research can strengthen the clinical research enterprise, contributing to optimal recruitment outcomes. This study explored CAPs as a research method to engage both partners and patients who were involved in a clinical trial focused on maternal and child health, public health research. Using a reflexive thematic analysis, in-depth, semi-structured interviews (N = 15) with community collaborators from urban settings, were analyzed through NVivo software. Interviews focused on key components of CAPs, including their structure, characteristics, and factors contributing to clinical and public health research engagement. A five-step process for the thematic analysis supported emergent high-level themes and interpretation of patterns. The reflexive thematic analysis generated five themes about CAPs as a research engagement method including: (1) Leveraging existing community systems, (2) Cultivating community-oriented research spaces, (3) Recognizing the community as a shared stakeholder, (4) Ensuring a community-aligned research team, and (5) Practicing authentic engagement. CAPs prioritized community values and interests that reflected community knowledge and systems, thereby creating research pipelines for partners and patients. Findings suggest that CAPs can be a tool for research engagement in clinical and public health research, which can inform best practices in research design and investigators’ approaches. Community-Academic Partnerships (CAPs) are crucial collaborations between communities and universities to reach a shared goal. CAPs are used within public health and clinical research, but there is limited knowledge about how CAPs engage partners and patients in research. This study analyzed interviews from community partners to better understand how CAPs work as a research engagement strategy. The study found that CAPs listen to the community’s voice, meet the community where they are at, acknowledge the community’s perspective, ensure the community is represented on the research team, and practice authentic engagement. In doing so, CAPs increase willingness to be involved in research. These findings can help researchers design their projects in ways that use better strategies to engage partners and patients.