Community-Engaged Research, Action, and Partnerships

Advancing community-driven research that improves lives, strengthens communities, and benefits society

Collaboration | Co-Creation | Capacity Building | Communication

The Community-Engaged Research, Action, and Partnerships (CERAP) unit is led by an interdisciplinary team of community engaged faculty and researchers who are committed to advancing community-driven research that improves lives, strengthens communities, and benefits society. Community-university partnerships—also referred to as engaged or public scholarship—are collaborations between community-based groups and higher education institutions working together to co-create new knowledge, policies, and/or practices that promote individual and social transformation. Our approach involves community members and university researchers as partners, and it is grounded in our commitment to co-investigation, co-creation, and co-learning.

Submit a request for a CERAP Consultation

Penn State CERAP infographic showing five core values: shared expertise, equitable partnerships, shared decision-making, cultural sensitivity and humility, and financial stewardship. — Visual created by Natalie Mensah, CERAP Undergraduate Research Assistant

Objectives

The Community-Engaged Research, Action, and Partnerships (CERAP) Unit is focused on increasing the Social Science Research Institute’s capacity to:

Build community-engaged research capacity through trainings, symposia, and intensive, interactive workshops.
Promote transformative, ethical, reciprocal, and sustainable community-university partnerships.
Increase accessibility of research and information to community and university audiences through innovative dissemination methods.
Act to address community-driven priorities and pressing social issues.

What We Do

Consultations and collaborations
Trainings
Resource hub for community and university researchers
Tool and method development
Events and speaker series
Community and university capacity building
Institutional change work

CERAP Team Spotlight

Congratulations to CERAP's Community-Engaged Specialist, Sarah Horton, for being selected as a finalist for the 2026 Care to Share Award at the Conference for Women!

Description of CERAP for Grants

The following language can be used to describe CERAP in grant materials.

The Community-Engaged Research, Action and Partnerships (CERAP) unit is housed within the Social Science Research Institute and provides resources designed to build faculty and community capacity for ethical, sustainable, transformative, and innovative community-engaged research. Resources include trainings and individual or team consultations on community-engaged research study design, evaluation and measurement, and best practices in research co-design, developing and sustaining mutually-beneficial partnerships, centering community priorities and voices, developing culturally-responsive procedures and protocols, and responsible research dissemination. Copy

Summer Institute

The CERAP Unit hosted its first Summer Institute on Community-Engaged Research from Tuesday, June 2nd - Wednesday, June 3rd. The Institute brought together community partners and Penn State faculty and staff for two days worth of workshops, symposia, and training. Day 1 focused on Research Practice Partnerships, Policy, and Public Impact, while Day 2 was an intensive Methodology Boot Camp focused on Youth Participatory Action Research. More information about our 2026 Summer Institute can be found in the attached report. CERAP would like to thank all of our speakers, attendees, staff and students for helping us to make this a successful event, and we look forward to hosting more annual Summer Institutes in the coming years!

CERAP-2026-Summer-Institute-Report.pdf (12.35 MB)

Community engaged research has burgeoned over the past two decades, characterized by a paradigm shift from doing work on communities to doing work with communities. Evolving from niche to conventional, this methodological approach centers equity and addresses social concerns through partnership. As universities focus on public, engaged scholarship, it is essential that scholars and community members have the capacity to critically engage in this space. The 2026 Child Study Center Innovation Hub symposium, Community Engaged Research for Public Impact: Process to Policy, will provide a forum to do this. The event will be held on February 6th from 8:30am – 12:00pm in the Nittany Lion Inn, Ballroom A/B, and it will focus on community engaged research perspectives, methods, and approaches with diverse populations, in multiple geographies, across the lifespan. See our Event Page for more details.

Monthly Huddles

What is the Huddle?

The Huddle is a community of practice for community-engaged researchers who share a commitment to equitable, sustainable, reciprocal, transformative community-engaged research. The goal of this community of practice is to build relationships with others who are passionate about co-creating research with community members and want to learn how to do it better. Through regular gatherings, we will share ideas, resources, tools, and build a culture of support. Building on our collective knowledge and expertise, the topics and themes for each session will come from Huddle participants who are invited to present ongoing work, workshop a dilemma or challenge, pilot measures, share resources, lead topical discussions, practice activities, and more! We invite our colleagues to join us to build the Huddle as a space for supportive relationships and capacity building.

Upcoming Huddle Dates:

September 4, 2026
October 2, 2026
November 6, 2026
December 11, 2026

The monthly Huddles are hybrid events. In-person room details (at University Park) and Zoom link will be provided upon RSVP each month.

Please note that providing a hybrid virtual/in-person format reflects our commitment to ensuring equitable access to opportunities for capacity building to the university-wide community across the Commonwealth