University's absorptive capacity for collaborative research: examining challenges and opportunities for organizational learning to engage in research with community partners

The study and the practice of collaborative research between university researchers and community entities of various types have generally focused on the organizational conditions that facilitate community partners to make use of research knowledge. In this article, we propose a conceptual innovation that absorptive capacity - the ability to identify helpful new information and to absorb and apply it in new ways - is important not only for community entities but also for universities. Using our experience of collaborating at the University of California Berkeley between scholars engaged in collaborative research and Institutional Review Board (IRB) analysts, we examine the dimensions of absorptive capacity - prior knowledge, communication pathways, strategic knowledge leadership, and resources - in the university context. The analysis generates insights that recommend 1) further research into the conditions and the processes of organizational learning for collaborative research in universities and 2) strategies for practitioners of collaborative research to strengthen and improve universities' capacity to engage in it.