Over the last 15 years, the field of Team Science has developed significantly, providing crucial insights into collaborative teamwork and its effectiveness in addressing complex challenges. While community engagement has been recognized as pivotal, inviting citizens to participate as scientists, numerous barriers have hindered their active involvement. As a result, historically marginalized communities often face exclusion from academic research, leading to a power dynamic that limits equitable partnerships and challenges in building trust between communities and academic partners for effective Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR).

In response, a diverse team of Community and Academic partners in Chicago developed the Team Science Community Toolkit. This online resource leverages the principles of Team Science to bridge the gap and engage more citizen scientists in research. The Toolkit includes tools such as an interactive decision calculator to assess the feasibility and equity of research collaborations, and problem-solving scenarios to navigate challenges arising from differing missions and values.

Preliminary data from the evaluation of the Toolkit suggest that its Team Science approach stimulates effective communication between community and academic partners. ~30 adults, comprising community workers or researchers, utilized the Toolkit over a 4-week period, offering weekly feedback. Subsequently, in-depth interviews were conducted, followed by a follow-up survey sent after a period to assess long-term impact and retention. Initial results show that respondents reported over 80% increased knowledge and confidence in partnering on CBPR projects after using the Toolkit.

Participants in focus groups expressed high satisfaction that “the Toolkit is near perfect!” It was praised for its accessible language and content, “I really liked the level of the language… anybody can understand” and “… [Templates] were really well done and the scenarios were good I learned a lot…” Team Science was centered throughout the content and a participant remarked, “I think it really included a lot of issues that sometimes are difficult to talk about… because we're coming at it at different angles… the researcher versus the community person, and sometimes it's hard to bring up issues…”

The Toolkit's ability to address the varied understanding and concerns of community-based organization (CBO) partners with different levels of research experience is a key takeaway. It demonstrates that bringing the principles of Team Science to Community-Academic partnerships has the potential to make CBPR collaboration more accessible, serving as a bridge to bring more citizen scientists to research.

Moving forward, it is recommended to conduct a qualitative analysis of the initial dialogue between community and academic partners about the Toolkit. This analysis will help understand the communication processes that either support or hinder the progression to CBPR collaboration and the role that Team Science could play in these partnerships.

The Team Science Community Toolkit represents a significant advancement in engaging citizen scientists in research and addressing expressed barriers like jargon and lack of transparency. By promoting effective communication and facilitating equitable partnerships, the Toolkit is contributing to the evolving field of Team Science and paving the way for a more inclusive and collaborative approach to research.