The Community-Based Research (CBR) Collaborative
The CBR Collaborative unites people with HIV, researchers, and organizations to foster partnerships and drive stigma-reducing community-based research.
The CBR Collaborative strengthens and expands Canada’s CBR network to better meet the needs of people living with HIV. Working through strong partnerships, we coordinate regional and national efforts, build research capacity where it’s needed most, support funding and program success, and drive knowledge sharing to maximize impact.
The CBR Collaborative was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research from 2012 until 2022, following two consecutive CIHR funding cycles.
We supported more than 100 regional and population-specific projects to secure funding, lead innovative and action-driven community-based research, and amplify the voices of people and networks driving change in communities affected by HIV. Along the way, we trained and equipped students, people living with HIV, and community partners with the skills and tools needed to turn research into real impact.
CBR was more than a research method — it was a collaborative movement that valued every voice and bridged sectors and communities. Through the CBR Collaborative, people with lived experience, community organizations, health providers, and researchers worked together to build capacity, strengthen relationships, and co-create solutions. In CBR, the research process itself became a powerful act of social change — fostering learning, breaking down stigma, improving health, and empowering communities across the country.
Putting community at the heart of our HIV research means respecting lived experience.
The Collaborative provided support and mentoring to assist people with lived experience of HIV to remain engaged in research—from the initial stages of developing a research question in partnership, to actively sharing research results and working for change.
People living with HIV have long been at the centre of efforts to fight HIV and improve the health and well-being of communities affected by HIV in Canada. In order to ensure people with lived experience of HIV are prominent in HIV research, the CBR Collaborative provides a virtual space and resources for our national network to continue to build CBR capacity for HIV/STBBI in Canada for people living with HIV, researchers, community members and agencies, and students and trainees.
