Community Engaged Research & Impact (CERI)
About CERI
CERI will regularly collate these resources and make them available to you, depending on what type of engagement you seek—doing research with the community or extending research for the community as a part of your education and outreach efforts for Broader Impacts (BI).
Engaging with Chicago’s Communities
CERI is designed to support the University of Chicago in becoming the leading institution in developing, studying, and implementing evidence-based solutions for addressing the social, educational, environmental, public safety, and public health challenges of major cities like Chicago.
Based in the Office of Research, CERI spans a range of research engagement with the community, including:
- Working with community partners to conduct collaborative research projects;
- Carrying out studies in the community to understand complex clinical, social, economic, educational, and environmental issues;
- Creating more opportunities for community-academic dialogue regarding community priorities, relevant research findings, and their implications;
- Integrating the community as a key setting for Broader Impacts programming and enabling greater educational and mentoring opportunities, upskill training and workforce development;
- Developing plans for research communication and dissemination.
We are fortunate that a wide range of successful and prominent initiatives and centers across UChicago’s academic divisions and professional schools are engaged with the community. The number and variety of these efforts makes it difficult to be aware of them and to establish productive collaborations for faculty across divisions, especially for faculty who are seeking to engage with trusted community partners or to collaborate on cross-sectional, interdisciplinary research projects.
To harness, promote, and grow this form of research, CERI will serve as a networking center of resources including like-minded investigators, community collaborators, and funding for research activities.
Goals of Community-Engaged Research
The goals of CERI are to:
- Grow and strengthen research infrastructure for conducting community-engaged research at UChicago;
- Identify and support UChicago investigators interested in community-engaged research;
- Promote interdisciplinary interactions related to community-engaged research across the divisions and schools.
News
South Side Science Festival – October 4, 2025
Join us on campus for the third annual South Side Science Festival!
Saturday, October 4, 2025 from 11am-6pm
CERI End of Year Survey
Thank you for your engagement in the Office of Research’s and the Office of Civic Engagement’s efforts to strengthen community-engaged research this year through CERI. We would like to continue to grow the initiative and ensure that faculty are receiving materials and opportunities that are beneficial to their work with community.
Chicago CARE (Collecting and Aligning Research to Achieve Health Equity)
The UChicago Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy, in partnership with the University of Chicago Office of Research and the Cancer Center, hosted Chicago CARE (Collecting and Aligning Research to Achieve Health Equity), one of 18 symposia across the United States to identify problems and strategize together on solutions to achieve health equity.
Get Started with CERI
Find Collaborations
Funding Opportunities
Learn about seed, pilot, and federal funding for community-based research >
Reach out to Elbert Huang (Senior Advisor to the Vice Provost for Research) with any questions about University-wide opportunities to collaborate, seek funding, or demonstrate Broader Impacts with community-based research.