A Needs Assessment Informs Development of a Participatory Research Faculty Development Workshop

Abstract

University-based researchers are finding they need a new set of skills to collaborate meaningfully with non-academic research partners, and to compete for funding opportunities that require community and end-user partnerships. This article describes a needs assessment conducted to develop a participatory research faculty development workshop at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This assessment and faculty development workshop design process distinguished the varying needs of potential participants based on the types of partnerships they were interested in forming, and their pre-existing participatory research competence.