Over the past year, researchers and graduate students from CIRES and CU Boulder’s Masters of the Environment (MENV) program researched best practices and explored community-centered approaches to create a new resource for CU Boulder professors, scientists, and students. The Community Engaged Research Toolkit aims to improve equitable relationships between researchers and the communities they work in. 

The group was recently awarded additional funding through CU Boulder’s Impact Grant program through the Leadership Support and Programming Office. CIRES Director of Access and Cultural Innovation, Becca Edwards, will continue to lead the program through the 2025-2026 academic year. 

“We recently received a renewal of this grant, which will allow us to pilot a micro-credential program using our toolkit to train researchers on fundamental aspects of effective community-based research,” Edwards said. “These concepts help environmental science researchers think critically about how to center the community needs in their research approach, such that we are truly serving society with our science.”

Community-engaged research (CER) is driven by the needs identified by community members, rather than those of researchers. The practice emphasizes a shift away from “parachute” or “helicopter” science — where researchers descend on a community, conduct their research with little engagement and relationship building, then leave with little to no follow-up. CER aims to engage the voices of community leaders and researchers while also interweaving local communal knowledge of the land and its history. 

After receiving initial seed funding in 2024, the team of researchers and students divided into a “working group” and a “design team.” The working group was comprised of six CIRES and MENV community-engaged research experts who helped guide the content development of the toolkit. The design team, comprised of three graduate students and two project leads, gathered the content and built the toolkit. Each group met frequently throughout the year to plan and design the toolkit and an online course. 

Workshops led by guest speakers helped deepen the team’s understanding of CER practices while providing resources to create the online toolkit. 

• Dawn Roberts-Semple associate professor from CUNY-York College traveled to Boulder and delivered two seminars on the basics of community-engaged research at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory and NCAR.
• Karen Bailey, assistant professor of environmental studies at CU Boulder, donated an equity-focused training she designed, which emphasizes using an equity lens on all research projects, which will help to match research with community needs.
• CIRES Tribal Advisor, James Rattling Leaf, provided expertise on how to engage with communities from a relationship-building perspective called “Ethical Space.”

“Being involved in the design team gave me the opportunity to collaborate with exceptional researchers and value-driven people,” said Alex Bradley, CIRES and CU Boulder PhD graduate. “Hopefully, our success will mean more inclusive, responsive work and make those who do the work more confident in their abilities.”

The design team created a Canvas course that will house the toolkit. The next cohort of students and mid-career researchers will test and provide feedback on the resource and proposed micro-credential program, and soon after, it will be accessible to CU Boulder employees and students. The toolkit will be open access for all CU Boulder researchers, and those who complete the micro-credential program will be eligible for an electronic badge, a certificate that can be displayed on resumes or LinkedIn. 

In June, the year of planning and designing culminated with a walking tour led by members of advocacy groups based in Denver. Several members of the design team participated, and the goal was to learn how communities and partners have worked together on projects to benefit the community. 

Community representatives included Executive Director of D3 Arts, Santi Jaramillo, and Maricendi Jaimes, community connector coordinator with BuCu West, a nonprofit that supports marginalized communities through business development. The group visited several parks in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood. Each park had a special story of how it was renovated and redesigned by the community with support from the Trust for Public Land. 

While the trip didn’t focus on research specifically, the outing “role modeled” how researchers can engage with community members through listening and asking questions. Many themes and questions for improving CER practices emerged throughout the day, including: 

• Funding to support research and communities
  • How can spending on the project honor community needs and funder goals?
• Relationship building
  • The importance of a strong community leader to partner with the funder or researcher from the beginning. This must be someone who has a long history with the community and who is passionate about supporting their needs.
  • Reserving time and resources for relationship building before applying for grants.
  • Building trust with the community involves accountability. How do you consistently hold your promises and provide transparency if you hit barriers?
• Collaboration and co-creation
  • Seeing the community as a partner with valid input for the research process.
  • Can the money be re-focused to be responsive if the needs of the community change, but the value/goals are still being honored?

The renewed funding from CU Boulder’s Impact Grant program will support the work for another year. Eight new participants, a mixture of graduate students from CIRES and CU Boulder’s MENV program, along with mid-career researchers, will put the toolkit and proposed micro-credential program into practice. The group will provide feedback by identifying key pinch points that need to be addressed before the program is launched to all of CU Boulder. 

“Meeting with these community leaders confirmed something that I have experienced: many researchers assume that their goals will automatically align with the community goals, however, they often don't,” said Audrey Gaudel, a CIRES researcher in NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory and participant in the second cohort. “It is so important to take time to design the project intentionally to align our goals.”