CPRC

Past Research. Dr. Rogério M. Pinto has made important contributions to understanding community-researcher collaboration, particularly in HIV prevention research. The innovative work of Dr. Pinto in collaboration with several community representatives and academic colleagues has demonstrated evidence-based processes for successful community-academic collaboration both nationally and internationally. Theoretically and empirically-driven models of collaboration have been developed for social work and public health research. For example, by focusing on the perspectives of community partners, research collaboration has been characterized in four domains: 1) Researcher’s Characteristics (expertise, availability); 2) Collaborative Research Characteristics (ought to improve services and CBO infrastructure); 3) Community Partner-Researcher Relationships (resolving social and professional issues); 4) and Barriers to HIV Prevention Research Collaboration (cultural and social disconnect between CBO and academia). To use the advantages of community-based research, prevention scientists and policy makers will need to embrace communities’ definitions of collaborative research. Also, funded by NIMH (5K01MH081787-02), Dr. Pinto has developed a study to identify factors that influence research collaboration and to map the ecology of community-researcher collaboration.

Current Research. Dr. Pinto’s current research focuses on the examination of factors that influence HIV prevention providers to collaborate with researchers in HIV prevention research, and on mapping the ecology of community-researcher collaboration. Although there is a rich descriptive literature on collaborative research, there is little empirical information on collaborative behavior, the factors that influence such behavior, and empirically-tested models of collaboration. Dr. Pinto has demonstrated the importance of including lay and scientific knowledge in public health research by establishing a theoretical and empirical framework of collaboration – the Ecological Map of Synergistic Research (EMSR), characterizing collaboration as a function of recursive strategies – communication, cooperation, consultation, contracting and community building. Ecological factors have been integrated into systems that influence essential elements of collaboration: establishing rapport, priorities and mutual goals; integrating lay and scientific knowledge; and advancing community-sanctioned policies and programs. The EMSR specifies that collaborators can integrate lay and scientific knowledge by drawing upon specific skills in their knowledge sets to accomplish complementary research tasks. Collaborators can identify the combination of knowledge and skill that best matches research tasks each can perform so as to define their roles and responsibilities in conducting research. This framework will provide the blueprint from which context-specific collaboration models can be implemented and evaluated.

Future Research. Dr. Pinto plans to expand his research to the examination of factors that influence community research collaboration in different types of diseases and social problems, including substance use and suicide prevention. This research plan will require the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data that will form the basis of several larger studies involving multiple collaborations. Context-specific models of collaboration will be tested using structural equation modeling and other statistical strategies suited for the analysis of collaboration data.

Professor Pinto's Departmental Biography Page