Community partnerships, ethics and legal agreements focus of webinar series

Have you ever wondered what leads to good partnerships with not-for profit organizations or grassroots community groups? How about how to navigate research ethics in the community-engaged space or how to better understand the benefits and trade-offs of legal agreements for community-partnered projects?

The Knowledge Engagement unit in Research Services will host a number of speakers in the coming weeks to share their perspectives on these topics as part of the Navigating Partnered Research series.

“Throughout this series, we have focused on tangible practices to support meaningful research connections and partnerships. This is the core of Knowledge Engagement. With these upcoming sessions, we are thrilled to feature the voices of real-life partnerships, including not just best practices but also common practical challenges and strategies for navigating them. The insights and experience of our guests will certainly be of interest to researchers and community members across diverse areas,” says Dr. Stephanie Warner, PhD, manager of the Knowledge Engagement team.

Two upcoming sessions in April focus on working with various community groups, and the remaining two sessions in May will focus on research ethics and the importance or legal agreements in partnerships.

“Successful research collaborations are based on strong relationships with collaborators and clear understandings of roles, responsibilities, and benefits. A legal agreement captures the latter, but does not serve as a substitute for strong relationships,” says Christopher Chow, Manager, Agreements Legal & Intellectual Property in the UCalgary Research Services Office who will presenting at the Papering Partnerships session. “Our goal is to assist faculty members in identifying any potential pitfalls or issues in research collaborations ahead of time to ensure that the project has the greatest opportunity for success.”

The webinar series is free, and open to faculty, staff, students and community partners. Attendees do not have to commit to the entire series and can register for topics that interest them.

Partnering with Not-for-Profit Organizations | Monday, April 11, 1-2 p.m. MT | Register 

• Join the leaders of local non-profit organizations and community-engaged researchers as they share their perspectives on partnering for research, including fielding inquiries, what makes a good partnership, and how to avoid common pitfalls. Attendees will also hear about available partnership supports.

Partnering with Grassroots Community Groups | Monday, April 25, 1-2 p.m. MT | Register

• Join University of Calgary researchers Dr. Turin Chowdhury, PhD, and Dr. Caley Shukalek, MD, as they share insights from their experience of partnering with grassroots community groups. This session will cover considerations specific to this unique context, including making contacts, developing relationships, and using a community-based participatory research approach.

Research Ethics for Community-Engaged Projects | Wednesday, May 11, 10-11 a.m. MT | Register

• Join the Chair of the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board, Dr. Jenny Godley, PhD, and Chair of the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board, Dr. Stacey Page, PhD, for an introduction to research ethics. They will discuss the history and fundamental principles of ethical practices for research involving human participants and provide an overview of the ethics application, review and renewal processes at UCalgary. This session will focus on key considerations related to community partnered research including developing collaborative relationships and agreements with partners in advance of submitting an ethics application and obtaining ethics approval in multiple jurisdictions.

Papering Partnerships |  Tuesday, May 31, 1-2 p.m. MT | Register 

• Co-presented by the Knowledge Engagement team and the Research Services Legal & IP team, this session will help you develop an understanding of the relationship maintenance practices for keeping your partnerships strong. This session will explore the variety of research collaboration scenarios available, the benefits/trade-offs of each and the agreements required.