Conference: Partnering in Research

On June 15th, the UBC Knowledge Exchange Unit and UBC Community Engagement hosted an inaugural Partnering in Research conference which brought together 200 UBC researchers, staff, graduate students, and external research partners to discuss how to meaningfully collaborate with communities for greater societal impact.

Over a third of the participants were community partners and included a few long-time friends (Darren Lauscher, Carolyn Canfield, and Sue Macdonald) of Patient & Community Partnership for Education and UBC Health.

“This day was a great opportunity to reflect on the community-university partnerships I have been a part of myself. I have always felt respected and appreciated as a community partner and it was nice to hear examples of other meaningful work.” said Sue Macdonald who coordinates Consumer Involvement and Initiatives for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

“My personal high point was meeting by chance an early career researcher who is connected to many people in my own network. We had a great conversation about research projects, professions and patient partners we knew in common. I was so pleased to offer a few big ideas from my own work. Thanks to an attractive conference agenda and a bit of luck, I’ve broadened my network in yet more dimensions of community-based partnership,” says Carolyn.

“There is a continued need to have these types of opportunities to come together. We do a lot of ‘siloing’ to get the work done but we miss the opportunities to collaborate and create long term relationships to foster future opportunities and mentoring others via connecting people together,” said Darren Lauscher, Health Mentor and co-chair of the UBC Health Patient & Community Advisory Committee.