2007 NIH Summer Institute

Course Objectives

The NIH Summer Institute will address essential conceptual, methodological, and practical issues inherent in planning and conducting CBPR to improve health and reduce disparities. The relevance of such CBPR interventions to the NIH public health goal of improving health outcomes has been outlined in PA-06-233 (R03), PA-06-234 (R21), and PA-07-292: Research on Social Work Practice and Concepts in Health; PAR-07-283 (R01), and PAR-06-247 (R21): Community Participation in Research; and PAR-07-004 (R21) Community-Based Participatory Research at NIMH.

The Institute is intended for investigators who wish to develop NIH grant applications for research in the area. Faculty will include established investigators from social work and other fields and who will provide instruction based on their expertise and own successful CBPR projects. The goal is for each participant to develop an NIH R01, R03, or R21 under the above mechanisms.

Major Topics

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to research that begins with a research topic of importance to the community and combines community and academic knowledge toward a goal of promoting social change to improve community health and reduce disparities. Neither a research method itself nor a theory, CBPR instead is an orientation to research that (at its best) represents a balance between research and community empowerment. As such, it is highly congruent with social work values.

Topics to be addressed include:

defining “community” in CBPR
engaging community stakeholders (here defined as individuals, groups, agencies, and institutions) in CBPR
negotiating “collaborative, equitable partnerships” in CBPR and get all to agree of its meaning
balancing community and academic concerns and interests (e.g., practical versus statistical significance)
applying the CBPR orientation to a variety of research designs and data collection methods (e.g., randomized clinical trials, qualitative studies, mixed methods)
applying the CBPR orientation to a variety of substantive areas of inquiry (e.g., serious mental illness, geriatrics, maternal and child health) and outcomes (e.g., health promotion, harm reduction, and public policy change)
how to evaluate the effectiveness of CBPR
how to disseminate results to that all involved are privy to research findings

Institute Format:

Participants will spend mornings in instructional sessions with Institute faculty. Early afternoons will be spent working on proposals. Participants will re-convene in late afternoons to discuss cross-cutting issues and share the progress of their work. In order to achieve the objectives of the 2007 Summer Institute, it is expected that participants will work on their proposals during the evening hours.

Proposals may be written in response to any of the following or other applicable NIH program announcements:

Participants are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to bring a laptop to participate in the Summer Institute.

Location of Instruction:

The Institute will be held at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, located one block off Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.

Cost

No fee is charged for the Summer Institute Program. Travel expenses, room and board, and materials will be covered by NIH.

Background

In May 2003, the National Institutes of Health developed the first trans-institute plan for social work research. This document, dubbed the NIH Plan for Social Work Research, made a series of recommendations to further enhance this area of research in the extramural program. One of the proposed initiatives was for NIH to conduct a Summer Institute on Social Work Research. This initiative would focus in 2004 on qualitative and mixed research methods, in 2005 on behavioral and social intervention research, and in 2006 on the design and development of quantitative research—these methodologies represent frequently mentioned research infrastructure and training needs in the field. Specifically, the NIH plan proposed to:

Develop and implement an NIH Summer Institute on Social Work Research offering new researchers intensive exposure to issues and challenges in the field of social work research. The program of the Summer Institute would include lectures, seminars, and small group discussions in research design relative to social work as it relates to health, discussion sessions on methodological approaches and interventions, and consultation on the development of research interests and advice on preparing and submitting research grant applications to the NIH.

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-233.html (R03)

http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-292.html (R01)

http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-283.html (R01)

http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-07-004.html (R21)

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-234.html (R21)

http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-06-247.html (R21)