title: The West End Revitalization Association's community-owned and -managed research model: development, implementation, and action.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Principal investigators (PIs) of community-based projects are predominantly university faculty who partner with community-based organizations (CBOs) to find a place to conduct research in communities that will cooperate with their research objectives. University-managed research models (UMRMs) are not always beneficial for CBOs because the university usually manages the study, collects and owns the data, and leverages control at each stage of research, without priority to resolution of problems impacting the quality of life of participating communities.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We present the principles of community-owned and -managed research (COMR), as a new community-driven research model developed by the West End Revitalization Association (WERA), a CBO in Mebane, North Carolina.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe WERA's development of COMR, compare the power hierarchies of COMR with traditional UMRMs, distinguish COMR partnerships from UMRM partnerships, discuss disbursement of funds, and control/ownership of data. As the PI of research activities, WERA drafted Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) for all partners, including academic researchers, implemented quality assurance and control procedures, submitted community research protocols for institutional review, and retained data ownership for action, activism, and problem solving. COMR methods encouraged corrective action of environmental justice (EJ) problems in affected communities, including provision of public, regulated drinking water and sewer services.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  COMR promotes CBOs with demonstrated organizational capacity to PI and project manager. The COMR model goes beyond UMRMs and CBPR because it emphasized the credibility and capacity of CBOs to develop, own, manage, foster, and sustain viable research agendas to address ongoing environmental hazards and related threats to health and quality of life.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina School of Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Heaney
authors.forename: Sacoby M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Omega R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D019058:Community Networks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000458:organization & administration*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009657:North Carolina; D012424:Rural Population; D012935:Social Justice; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards