Campus-Community Research Incubator Grant Program

The Campus-Community Research Incubator Program (CCRI) is a small grant fund designed to foster collaborative, research-oriented projects between university researchers and community organizations. Grants are awarded only to teams comprised of campus researchers and community organization representatives, including community organizations, faculty, healthcare providers, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, senior researchers, and others.

The Community Engagement Unit created the CCRI mechanism in response to discussions between university-based researchers and community partners that identified barriers community members face that prevent their engagement in health research. The CCRIs encourage partnerships between UC Irvine-based researchers and community stakeholders to develop collaborative research projects. The CCRI augments and builds on existing partnerships between the university and the community.

CCRI proposals must demonstrate an active engagement between campus and community representatives, i.e. a co-designed project that benefits the campus researcher and community organization equally. Awards may be used for capacity building expenses (e.g. trainings, data set organization, technology), data collection and analyses; and other research activities or pilot studies. Funds may be used to purchase research supplies, support research assistants, or buy out an applicant's time. At least 51% of award funds must be directly used to support community partner activities. The two funding levels are:

•               Mini CCRI $3,000-$5,000

•               Pilot CCRI $8,000-$10,000.

Partnered and engaged research differs in several ways from traditional research inquiry, including the time and care it takes to create and maintain mutually beneficial relationships, and the ability for partners to understand and acknowledge the expertise, contributions, and needs of the other. If you have questions about what is meant by Community-Engaged Research, would like examples of high quality proposals, help framing your research project, and/or to discuss your idea, please contact Robynn Zender via the information below.

Robynn Zender, MS
CEU Manager, Community Research
Institute for Clinical and Translational Science
949-824-3160
Email: rzender@uci.edu