Modeling the Structure of Partnership Between Researchers and Front-Line Service Providers

Abstract

Partnerships between HIV researchers and service providers are essential for reducing the gap between research and practice. Community-Based Participatory Research principles guided this cross-sectional study, combining 40 in-depth interviews with surveys of 141 providers in 24 social service agencies in New York City. We generated the Provider-Researcher Partnership Model to account for provider- and agency-level factors’ influence on intentions to form partnerships with researchers. Providers preferred “balanced partnerships” in which researchers and providers allocated research tasks and procedures to reflect diverse knowledge/skill sets. An organizational culture that values research can help enhance providers’ intentions to partner. Providers’ intentions and priorities found in this study may encourage researchers to engage in and policy makers to fund collaborative research.