Despite tremendous progress both in the number and quality of community-based research (CBR) courses and projects, their our gaps in our research support to our community partners. This conclusion has been reached based on the following observations (as well as extensive discussions with our campus and community partners) from analyzing the research papers produced by campuses participating in the National Community-Based Research Project:

• The majority of CBR projects requested by community partners have focused on questions specific to a single organization rather than taking a broader look at an issue. In fact, fewer than 5% of the 330 projects profiled in the 1997-2003 grant period had a specific focus on public policy or legislative analysis. So while students and community partners have gained a better understanding of the challenges facing individual organizations and the programs they operate they have not typically looked at the underlying causes and potential solutions to the issue, nor examined how civic and government processes in our democracy can bring about meaningful change.
• Once the CBR papers have been completed, many of our community partners are asking for assistance in how they might use the research results more effectively for program planning and policy purposes.
• Few of the CBR projects have involved multiple community groups facing the same or similar issues. Collaborative research projects could inspire and inform broader community dialogue and collaborative community problem-solving efforts involving local residents and business, government, and other non-profit leaders.
• These communities lack the "local community information infrastructure" that makes important data and reports available to those who are engaged in (or seek to pursue) civic involvement on an issue of common concern (see chart below). For instance, there is a need to organize the CBR papers and other community information (e.g., current policies, funding opportunities, resource organizations and events, key organizations, and access to data such as census, employment, poverty, and other data) to support policy-making, fundraising, collaboration, and planning.