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Research Articles

Vol. 26 No. 2

The Impacts of Science Shops for Community Partners and Students: A Case Study of a Cocurricular Canadian Model

Submitted
November 19, 2020
Published
2022-06-30

Abstract

Since 2009, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph has operated a Science Shop (The Research Shop) where it carries out high-impact community-engaged scholarship by training and employing graduate students to conduct community-engaged research as a co-curricular activity. This study investigates the first 9 years of the program to determine its impacts on community partners and students. Findings suggest that the benefits experienced by both stakeholder groups are similar to those identified in existing literature on community-engaged research and Science Shops, with some additional findings unique to this particular model. This study also found multiple challenges which are not well documented in existing literature. While further research is needed to contribute to the overall field of Science Shops, specifically in relation to the benefits and challenges experienced in different models, this current study suggests that they deliver distinct benefits to users, alongside challenges that could be addressed.