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NORC at the University Chicago
Partnering with organizations and engaging communities to advance research for the public good.

The Partner & Community Engagement (PACE) Research Center is an interdisciplinary hub for community-engaged research and evaluation, housed within The Bridge at NORC. PACE brings together social, behavioral, and communication scientists from across NORC who partner with foundations, nonprofits, local governments, health systems, and universities to co-design research with the communities at the center of the work. We design collaborations that share decision-making power with partners and elevate community voice, so that communities help shape research and can access, understand, and benefit from its findings.

PACE’s work is anchored in two proprietary frameworks: the Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) Framework, a structured methodology for building researcher-community partnerships at every stage of a study, and the Systems Change Evaluation and Learning Framework (SCELF), which evaluates how initiatives produce change within complex systems, not just at the program level. Our growing partner network includes the William T. Grant Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the AstraZeneca Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Center Leads

Ashani Johnson-Turbes
Director

Vince Welch
Associate Director
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Logo for The Bridge at NORC

PACE is housed within The Bridge, which works with University of Chicago faculty and other leading research institutions to deliver academically grounded applied social science research to advance human thriving across the lifespan.

Visit the Bridge

How We Partner

Whether you’re building internal capacity, designing and conducting a study, or shaping long-term strategy, PACE scientists’ meet and support you where you are. 

Building Capacity Together

We help partners strengthen their ability to design and lead community-engaged research. That includes training and education through in-person and online learning, train-the-trainer models, and communities of practice; technical assistance adapted to local needs; and expert support across public health, economics, housing, communication, and education.

Learning Together

We design and conduct research with community partners, from needs assessments and landscape scans to mixed-method evaluations. Through NORC’s ChicagoSpeaks, AmeriSpeak, and Amplify AAPI panels, we also lead probability-based surveys across the United States.

Shaping Strategy Together

We work with partners to align long-term direction with community priorities. That includes strategic planning to clarify goals and assess gaps, convenings and coalition building to drive consensus, theory of change development, and landscape analyses grounded in research and community context.

The Community-Engaged Research Framework

Methodology Highlight

Community engagement works best when it’s built in from the start. The Community-Engaged Research Framework is a structured,structured six-principle methodology for building genuine researcher-community partnerships at every stage of a study, from defining research questions through disseminating findings.

Explore the Framework
female volunteer talking to a diverse group of fellow volunteers wearing blue shirts

Our Experts

PACE scientists come from public health, political science, economics, psychology, anthropology, public policy, communication, and related fields, with deep applied experience in community-engaged research methods.

Our Work

See PACE’s recent projects, NORC survey panels, and areas of expertise.

Community-Engaged Survey Research

PACE draws on two of NORC’s probability-based survey panels to bring reliable, representative data into community-engaged research, reaching both local residents and communities that standard survey methods often miss.

ChicagoSpeaks Logo

A representative panel of Chicago residents, built on NORC's AmeriSpeak methodology and directed by PACE researchers. It gives local organizations, government, and the press reliable insight into what Chicago residents experience and believe.

Amplify AAPI logo

The first and only survey panel of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations, developed with NORC's AmeriSpeak team and conducting interviews in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Highlighted Projects

AstraZeneca Foundation CHANGE Evaluation & Technical Assistance

Supporting the AstraZeneca Foundation’s new health access program

Client:

AstraZeneca Foundation

Support for the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program

Technical assistance for efforts to transform the understanding of Parkinson’s genetics

Funder:

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP)

Cosmic Explorer

Assessing the social climate and workforce sustainability of sites for a next-generation gravitational-wave observatory

Client:

The University of Arizona

Publications