Initiative to Address Administrative Barriers to Community Engaged Research at Duke
A key dimension of President Price’s Duke strategic framework is “Partnering with Purpose” which aligns with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s goal of improving the health of our communities by facilitating partnerships. To further this priority, an institutional effort is underway to grow partnerships for effective research collaborations between Duke and community partners.
Working Group Updates
Working groups, comprised of staff around Duke, meet regularly to tackle specific barriers. To view the un-curated list of barriers identified by Duke staff, faculty, and our community partners, click HERE
Challenge: There is little guidance and consistent practice on how to know if an expense is allowable, and then how to budget for and process the expenditure.
Outcomes from 2024 – 2025: The working group is in the process of tackling line items in Duke-based guidance on NIH Allowable Costs to Improve Human Participation and Inclusion. To date, the group has provided guidance for childcare and is working on travel/meals and transportation costs.
Working Group Contact: Rebecca Brouwer
Challenge: The process to pay individuals and agencies is inconsistent, burdensome, and with little written guidance.
Progress:
- Duke Finance recently launched PaymentWorks, Duke’s new vendor management platform that will allow electronic payments to our community partners.
- A PERC Community of Practice SharePoint site, integrated with a Microsoft Teams channel, was launched in July 2025 to:
- Serve as a resource for fiscal-related information pertinent to community-engaged research
- Include links to Duke University resources
- Provide tools, templates, and examples shared by teams currently performing community-engaged research
- Offer a platform for faculty and staff performing community-engaged research to post questions and seek guidance from each other
- Duke Finance agreed on a definition of a community partner eligible for net 0-day check request payments and established an email address for submitting requests.
- The working group is now working with Duke Finance to create a process for applying net 0-day terms for payments via purchase orders with community partners.
- Working Group Contact: Lynn Sutton
Challenge: The process for applying and obtaining IRB approval for community-based studies is complex and time-consuming, often involving extensive communication to determine the necessary documentation and requirements.
Outcomes from 2024 – 2025 The working group developed resources to ensure that research teams provide information required by the IRB staff and reviewers. This includes the following, which can be found in the Guide for Managing Administrative Elements of Community Engaged Research:
- An annotated iRIS form to detail what information, specific to community-based research, should be included in the DUHS IRB protocol for rapid review
- Sample DUHS consent template for community-based research
- DUHS IRB Sample Research Summary
- Decision tool designed to help research teams know what documentation will be needed in various scenarios (IRB documents, agreements, etc)
Working Group Contact: Rebecca Brouwer
Challenge: It was unclear when a community partner needed to be included as key personnel on a protocol, and the training required was cumbersome.
Progress:
- The Duke Health IRB has clarified its key personnel policy to articulate when an external collaborator should be included as key personnel. https://irb.duhs.duke.edu/policy/key-personnel
- The Duke Health IRB has updated the training requirements for community partners https://myresearchpath.duke.edu/citi-training-community-partners
- The above training requirements and modules are available in Spanish.
Working Group Contact: Rebecca Brouwer
Challenge: Language barriers are present in both research and clinical care settings.
- There is a shortage of translators and interpreters for research participants whose primary languages are not English or Spanish, as well as those who require American Sign Language
- The IRB has established certain translation requirements, and the process of back translation can incur significant costs
- Procurement forms and instructions are only available in English
Outcomes from 2024 – 2025:
- Combined efforts with the DOCR Inclusivity Working Group, and are currently focused on seeking feedback on existing translation policies
- DOCR is working to issue new guidance on requirements needed for dual-language clinical research coordinators across all the departments.
- The team is currently evaluating the possibility of using machine-assisted translation as an initial step for translating documents, followed by a review from a human translator.
Working Group Contact: Raquel Ruiz
Challenge: There are limited transportation options for Duke individuals to get into the community, or for individuals coming to Duke. Once community members are on campus, childcare options can be a pressing need.
Outcomes from 2024 – 2025:
- New guidance on budgeting for, and processing, childcare expenses is available on myRESEARCHpath
- A webpage is being created that includes parking/ transportation information about:
- Community members getting to campus
- Getting students off campus to community sites
- Transportation for research subjects to campus
Working Group Contact: Debbie Goldstein