Summer Workshop Series Recap - Day 2

What happens when you bring together scientists from diverse fields, all committed to making research more inclusive and transparent? We explored that and more during the 2025 PASE Open Science Workshop, held June 16-18. Here’s a quick recap of what we covered on Day 2!

Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 - Connecting with Communities

Dr. Ron Chandler, Lecturer in the UF Department of Psychology, set the stage with an overview of Participatory Action Research (PAR), emphasizing its core principle: that research questions and processes should be developed with, not just about, the communities involved. He walked us through what it looks like to share decision-making with participants and stakeholders throughout the research process.

Dr. Ana Maria Porras, Assistant Professor in the UF Department Biomedical Engineering, then led a group activity where we worked through real-world case studies. Each team received a different scenario, and our task was to reimagine the research approach using a PAR framework. While the details of the cases varied, the process was the same: examine how the research was originally designed, then identify where and how community voices could be more meaningfully included.

This activity helped clarify how often traditional approaches might overlook important local context, and how applying PAR principles can shift not just the outcome, but the entire purpose and direction of a study. The group discussions reinforced a key takeaway: research is most relevant and impactful when the community it affects is involved from the beginning.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed thoughtful questions, examples, and ideas. If you have any follow-up questions or want to get more involved, feel free to reach out to the PASE Executive Board at pase@bme.ufl.edu!