Aggie Compass Research Collaboration Request
Guidelines for research collaboration with Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center.
We encourage students, staff and faculty from all universities to conduct research in the area of student basic needs. These guidelines outline the process and requirements for collaboration with Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center (ACBNC).
All research applications undergo thorough review by the Aggie Compass Research Committee (ACRC). This standardized process ensures a comprehensive approach to selecting and overseeing ACBNC research collaborations. Applications are reviewed monthly, and if approved, the committee will follow up with the applicant to request any necessary documentation, such as IRB documents, promotional material, questionnaires, and funding information.
To streamline the process, applications are reviewed in the order they are received, no later than 30 days after submission. We recommend that you submit your request a minimum of two months before your expected research start date. If you are requesting data only, we recommend you submit a request six weeks in advance of when it is needed. Students working on time sensitive class or internship projects can email the ACRC directly. Request forms submitted after the monthly deadline (The 10th of each month) will automatically be considered the following month.
We kindly ask that interested parties review the guidelines listed below before submitting the research request form.
For any research related questions please feel free to reach out to the ACRC Lead Researcher, Emily Sklar essklar@ucdavis.edu. For general questions, email compass@ucdavis.edu.
Guidelines
Alignment: Research must align with the goals of the UC Basic Needs Initiative and the Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center (ACBNC).
- Project must align with the Aggie Compass mission: To provide equitable programming and access to resources and to advocate for policy, systems and environmental change for all UC Davis students no matter who they are or where they come from.
- Project must contribute to the UC Basic Needs Initiative goals:
- Reduce the proportion of undergraduate students reported to have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months by 50 percent.
- Reduce the proportion of graduate students reported to have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months by 50 percent.
- Reduce the proportion of undergraduate students who have experienced housing insecurity by 50 percent.
- Reduce the proportion of graduate students who have experienced homelessness to by 50 percent.
Engagement: Research within communities should be developed with cultural competency and/or input from community members and practitioners in the field of basic needs. This may include:
- Reviewing materials and providing feedback as part of a community advisory board (Ex. Interview questions, survey questions, findings and conclusions),
- Support developing materials when cultural competency and practitioner experience is needed, and
- Support facilitating research, data analysis, and interpretation.
NOTE: Varying levels of participation may be compensated. Examples of compensation include: a stipend, incentive, or co-authorship on manuscripts.
Language:
- Use person-first language in all components of participant-facing research materials and post-research presentations, reports, and manuscripts. Examples:
- Instead of saying "underprivileged people," say "individuals from underserved communities" or "people facing economic disadvantage."
- Instead of saying “food insecure individuals” say “individuals with food insecurity”
- Use neutral/positive language surrounding basic needs, resources and programs.
Survey Fatigue: Over saturation of surveys and focus groups produce survey fatigue leading to low response rates. Topic, timing, and population will be considered and collaboration may be requested between research studies to avoid fatigue.
Compensation: All studies recruiting from a campus UC Basic Needs listserv, or physical site, should provide compensation and/or incentives for student participation.
NOTE: Systemwide research recruiting participants from all campus basic needs listservs, should have an incentive structure in place, commensurate with the sample size and study time requirements.
Acknowledgements: Where appropriate, all study participants and contributing practitioners should be acknowledged in the final report, manuscript, and/or presentation.
Dissemination of Findings: A plan must be in place to share research findings with research participants and/or contributing basic needs practitioners.