The Community and Collaboration Core (CCC) offers three types of pilot grants, each of which aims to build and support community-engaged research (CEnR) partnerships through relationship-building activities, exploring research interests, and developing infrastructure and governance for research partnerships.
Regardless of the grant program, projects are expected to use approaches along the continuum of engagement, including community-based participatory research, patient-centered outcomes research, or other engaged research collaborations. The grant program encourages the participation of new and/or junior faculty investigators and the participation and/or training of new or inexperienced community investigators and doctoral students with an established team.
All projects must be designed to be feasible to complete within 12 months.
At this time, we are not accepting applications.
Grant Type 1: Partnership Development Grants
These grants provide up to $25,000 per grantee and aim to support partnership-building activities for “new” collaborations between faculty from three academic institutions (Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland at Baltimore, and Morgan State University) and a community partner (a community- or faith-based organization or public agency) from the Greater Baltimore area.
While Partnership Development Grants may include some formative research activities, the grant program intends to support activities that set the stage for future CEnR endeavors.
Possible Partnership Development Grant activities may include, but are not limited to:
- Developing/establishing research partnership infrastructure (e.g., advisory boards, partnership roles and responsibilities, policies and procedures, memoranda of understanding).
- Facilitating formal or informal meetings for partners to identify shared goals, priorities, and research interests.
- Holding listening sessions with community members around challenges and opportunities to address community health needs.
- Building research capacity for community partners (e.g., setting up reliance agreements, conducting IRB training, providing training on research design and methods).
- Building CEnR research capacity for academic partners (e.g., principles of community engagement, 10-step Framework, cultural humility, dissemination).
Grant Type 2: Advancing Collaboration Grant
This grant is only available to previous CCC grantees to support the strengthening and/or expansion of their community engagement activities. Application budgets are allowed up to $50,000 in direct costs but must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed research. Potential aims of an advancing collaboration grant may include (but are not limited to):
- Supporting investigators and partners in community-engaged research (CEnR) capacity development (e.g., training, organizational capacity)
- Expanding partnership activities to include new/additional community members/organizations
- Developing research questions and/or project design together and submitting for further funding and/or IRB approval.
- Initiating or expanding project/research activities identified through the existing partnership.
- Disseminating scientific information together through developing a manuscript or conference presentation or sharing lessons learned with the broader community.
- Preparing and submitting research proposals for external funding based on the data collected during the original CCC pilot grant.
Grant Type 3: The Engagement Grant
Provides up to $50,000 in starter funds for CEnR projects that focus on testing innovative techniques for addressing health problems. Engagement Grant projects should focus on topics that are a demonstrated priority to the community and are expected to build or expand on existing community-academic partnerships. Projects may use approaches along the continuum of community engagement, including community-based participatory research, patient-centered outcomes research, or other forms of collaboration.
