Building relationships to connect cancer researchers with community members: ‘bench to community pipeline’

Purpose Partnerships between researchers and community members and organizations can offer multiple benefits for research relevance and dissemination. The goal of this project was to build infrastructure to create bidirectional relationships between University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) researchers and community educators in the Division of Extension, which connects the knowledge and resources of the university to communities across the state. Methods This project had three aims: (1) create linkages with Extension; (2) establish an in-reach program to educate and train researchers on the science of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE); and (3) identify and facilitate collaborative projects between scientists and communities. Survey and focus group-based needs assessments were completed with both researchers and Extension educators and program activity evaluations were conducted. Results Most Extension educators (71%) indicated a strong interest in partnering on COE projects. UWCCC faculty indicated interest in further disseminating their research, but also indicated barriers in connecting with communities. Outreach webinars were created and disseminated to community, a “COE in-reach toolkit” for faculty was created and a series of “speed networking” events were hosted to pair researchers and community. Evaluations indicated the acceptability and usefulness of these activities and supported continuation of collaborative efforts. Conclusion Continued relationship and skill building, along with a sustainability plan, is critical to support the translation of basic, clinical, and population research to action in the community outreach and engagement context. Further incentives for faculty should be explored for the recruitment of basic scientists into community engagement work.