About this session

Friday, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Building and Maintaining Research Partnerships to Strengthen Child and Family Policy Research

Research partnerships are a critical part of policy research. In fact, they are a requirement of all research funding opportunities from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). At a minimum, this requires that research and local, state, Tribal, and/or federal agency partners develop research questions together to ensure that research results will inform the agency as well as the field at large. The level of involvement among agency partners varies tremendously across research projects. However, some recent funding opportunities have outlined expectations for collaborative research. For example, some grant programs require partners to agree on the research design and its implementation, establish a mechanism to regularly discuss results throughout the project, interpret results together policies, and communicate the results to research, practice and policy audiences. More often, funding opportunities emphasize the importance of collaboration among research partners without specifying the what or how of realizing productive partnerships. In this context, researchers must determine what their particular study requires and what is realistic, while navigating many more differences in perspective, priorities, terminology, methods and practice, in addition to the standards dictated by the scientific method and their research training.

This roundtable session, which will be moderated by Dr. Ann Rivera of ACF's Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), will feature panelists who are current or recent recipients of grant funding from OPRE. Each of these research funding opportunities required a research partnership involving researchers and programmatic/policy actors. These researchers have extensive experience in research partnerships producing highly impactful research about child and family policies, and they will share their perspectives for building sustainable partnerships and successful policy research. Panelists include Dr. Celene Domitrovich (Georgetown University Medical Center), Dr. Yoonsook Ha (Boston University School of Social Work), Dr. Brenda Jones Harden (Columbia University School of Social Work), and Dr. Michelle Sarche (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus).

During the session, Dr. Rivera will provide introductory remarks highlighting the importance of partnerships for ACF grant programs and introduce the panel members (10 min). Each of the panelists will then briefly describe their partnership(s) (20 min). Then Dr. Rivera will ask the panel specific questions about building and sustaining partnerships (30 min). Some of these questions include: How did you establish your partnership with the local, state, Tribal, or federal agency? How do you build and maintain productive research partnerships? What are the challenges that you encountered and how did you overcome them? How are partnerships across research and policy sectors different from partnerships across academic or research institutions? How do research partnerships shape/affect the work of researchers in academic institutions? and What advice would they offer to someone who wants to engage agencies or policy actors in collaborative research? Finally, the last 30 minutes of the session will include conversation with the audience about research partnerships. To facilitate this discussion, we will have questions for the audience including: Who is currently part of a research partnership? What challenges did they have developing or maintaining their partnership? How did they overcome those challenges? and What advice would they offer to someone who wants to engage agencies or policy actors in collaborative research?

Research partnerships are a critical part of policy research. In fact, they are a requirement of all research funding opportunities from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Developing and maintaining partnerships across research, policy, and program sectors can be challenging. However, collaborating with government and community agencies at local, state, Tribal, or federal levels strengthens the relevance and implications of public scholarship. In addition, the research is more likely to inform policies and a wide range of programmatic decisions that are not often considered by researchers. A panel of researchers from academic settings who have received ACF funding and have experience collaborating with staff in policy and program sectors will address several questions that are often asked by researchers interested in conducting research that informs child and family policy, including: How do you establish partnerships with community-based organizations or government agencies administering services for children and families?, How do you build and maintain productive research partnerships?, How are partnerships across research and policy sectors different from partnerships across academic or research institutions?, How do research partnerships shape/affect the work of researchers in academic institutions?, How can you ensure equitable research within these partnerships? We will begin the session with a brief overview of ACF grant programs that require research partnerships. Then panelists will describe their partnerships and answer guiding questions. Finally, an open discussion will explore audience questions and interests. Research partnerships are a critical part of policy research. In fact, they are a requirement of all research funding opportunities from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Developing and maintaining partnerships across research, policy, and program sectors can be challenging. However, collaborating with government and community agencies at local, state, Tribal, or federal levels strengthens the relevance and implications of public scholarship. In addition, the research is more likely to inform policies and a wide range of programmatic decisions that are not often considered by researchers. A panel of researchers from academic settings who have received ACF funding and have experience collaborating with staff in policy and program sectors will address several questions that are often asked by researchers interested in conducting research that informs child and family policy, including: How do you establish partnerships with community-based organizations or government agencies administering services for children and families?, How do you build and maintain productive research partnerships?, How are partnerships across research and policy sectors different from partnerships across academic or research institutions?, How do research partnerships shape/affect the work of researchers in academic institutions?, How can you ensure equitable research within these partnerships? We will begin the session with a brief overview of ACF grant programs that require research partnerships. Then panelists will describe their partnerships and answer guiding questions. Finally, an open discussion will explore audience questions and interests.

Session moderator
Ann Christine Rivera, Ph.D., Administration for Children and Families, United States

Panelists
Dr. Celene Elizabeth Domitrovich, Ph.D., Georgetown University School of Medicine , United States
Yoonsook Ha, Ph.D., Boston University , United States
Brenda Jones Harden, Ph.D., Columbia University , United States
Michelle Sarche, Ph.D., University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus , United States

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