Dear Colleagues,
The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) invites community-engaged researchers in your units to submit projects for the campuswide Community-Academic Scholars (CAS) Program. This program provides substantive support for community-engaged research, transformational learning opportunities for students, and impactful community collaboration opportunities for campus researchers.
Now in its eighth year, the CAS program establishes triad teams of campus researchers, community organizations, and undergraduate research assistants. Campus researchers and community partners submit a research project and are then matched with a scholar who receives training, guidance, and a stipend to support their success. Beyond the summer program, researchers are invited to engage with IHSI to continue developing their projects. All Illinois faculty and staff who conduct community-engaged research are encouraged to apply, as the program seeks to address the multiple dimensions, determinants, and expanse of areas that affect human health and well-being. Project applications are due January 28.
Ideal projects involve an equitable partnership between the researcher and community stakeholder that is grounded in mutual collaborative benefit, shared authority between university and community partners, and co-creation of goals and outcomes. Scholars matched to each project are committed to making an impact in our community and have demonstrated experiences or interests that reflect a strong alignment with the population that the project serves and/or the project’s methodologies. Previous mentors have shared that their scholars’ contributions and insights have been invaluable to their research projects, and that these mentoring relationships have also been personally rewarding.
We hope that you will consider encouraging faculty and research staff in your unit to submit a project proposal by January 28, 2026. Please reach out to Maxwell Wallace at mmw3@illinois.edu with any questions or if you are seeking to be matched with a community collaborator.
Thank you for your interests and efforts toward building stronger community-academic research relationships, and for supporting our students along their career paths and future leadership roles.
Sincerely,
Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute