National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies - Partnerships

National Research Institute staff and Research Fellows maintain informal and formal partnerships with researchers and research organizations to support the collaborative work that is necessary with applied research. Informal partnerships may include consultation on research design and statistical analysis and sharing research findings. Formal partnerships may involve ongoing collaborative work on program development and evaluation, externally funded research, and training students to become clinicians or applied researchers in child care.

Our major partnership is with the Center for At-Risk Children’s Services within the Barkley Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (www.unl.edu/cacs). The Center has been very successful in developing research programs, particularly in the area of education and child/family services provided within schools. The Center is collaborating with us to conduct studies that promote the development of aspects of our program, such as Reading is FAME ®, Well Managed Classroom, Long-Term Residential Care, Common Sense Parenting ®, and others. As a result of this partnership, Alexandra Trout, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor at the Center, is dedicated full time to Boys Town research. Other research partnership opportunities will occur through our Scientific Advisory Board members.

Another partnership, with the Boys Town National Research Hospital Pediatric Group and the Institute of Child Health Improvement, will help us develop a focus on prevention. We will be able to extend the knowledge gained in our service programs to primary and public health care settings via this important partnership.