Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive (HIBAR) research projects are the type of projects that pursue basic knowledge while addressing urgent societal challenges. HIBAR projects are co-led by collaborative cross-sectoral teams, including both academics and experts working outside of academia who bring leadership skills and deep understanding of a societal problem. Researchers in all fields, including social sciences, humanities, science, engineering, and medicine, are central to many HIBAR projects.

HIBAR projects are:

• Highly Integrative because they deeply integrate different motivations, theories, methods, and participants; and
• Basic and Responsive because they embrace the academic character and purpose of basic research while addressing societal challenges.

The inherent synergy within a HIBAR research project accelerates knowledge creation and generates better solutions, making a distinct and valuable contribution to the research landscape.

This synergy is the result of:  

• Shared leadership by people in academia and society, working in an equitable partnership: The diverse perspectives they bring to the project mean that, together, they make wiser decisions about the direction, participants, and activities within the project – from the start and throughout.
• Integrated purposes of seeking new knowledge and addressing a problem in society: Together, these purposes lead project teams, informed by the context of the societal challenge, to draw from a wider set of knowledge and skills, and to combine a wider range of problem-solving methods.

Sustained urgency is a hallmark of a HIBAR research project: team members are passionate about addressing the societal problem as quickly as possible, while recognizing that building the required deep understanding takes time.

Cross-sectoral co-leadership is a key distinguishing characteristic of HIBAR research projects. 

By “cross-sectoral”, we mean partnerships between university researchers and individuals in external organizations, including industry, government, non-profit organizations, civil society, and communities of practice. Importantly, these individuals are knowledgeable of the societal problem that is being addressed by the HIBAR project and they participate in the project as equal partners

What are the distinguishing characteristics of these cross-sectoral partnerships?

• Partners share an overarching goal to both discover new knowledge and address a specific societal problem.
• Partners “co-lead” the research: academics and external partners are together actively involved in all phases of the research activity, including consequential decisions related to the research. 

The shared goals and shared decision-making are essential components of these partnerships, because the diverse perspectives that partners bring to the project mean that, together, they make wiser decisions about the direction, participants, and activities within the project – from the start and throughout. (This type of partnership is often what people describe when they refer to “co-production” and “co-creation”.)

HIBAR research projects have always existed in universities, but they have been less common than the usual forms of basic or applied research. Nevertheless, there are numerous excellent examples of HIBAR projects across the university, ranging, for example, from technology innovation to community engagement to policy creation.

This is a time-honored form of research that, until 2017, lacked a name and the label “Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive” was developed to emphasize its integrative and recursive characteristics. The type of partnership within a HIBAR project is often what people describe when they refer to “co-production” and “co-creation”.

It is meaningful to focus on the broad category of research projects that have dual motivations (generating new knowledge and tackling a societal problem) and dual leadership (academics and external experts). The label “Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive”, or HIBAR, was developed to describe the category.

There is overlap between HIBAR projects and other forms of research. For example, many community-engaged and public scholarship research projects involve a partnership in which community members, organizations, students, and academics participate as co-researchers, and these would also be described as HIBAR projects.

However, a HIBAR project need not necessarily involve community members and it may not necessarily address issues of social justice or community needs. For example, a project that is co-led by academics and, for example, researchers based in a technology company to solve a vexing technical problem in an innovative way would be considered a HIBAR project, but it is not likely to be considered as a community-engaged project, even if the resulting technology benefited a community.

HIBAR projects differ from traditional academic research projects in at least two ways. They provide
the opportunity for graduate students to work as part of a team that has diversity in expertise and
lived experience, and with non-academic partners on a project that addresses a problem in society.

Engaging in HIBAR research as part of their graduate student training is one means by which
graduate students can have a direct and meaningful societal connection through their research.

For the many graduate students who do not pursue a career in academia, HIBAR projects offer
valuable personal contacts and experiential opportunities that can lead to many different career
paths. This arrangement creates a positive feedback loop: as more HIBAR-experienced students
enter the workforce, their familiarity with HIBAR research makes it much more likely that they will
co-create and co-lead more university HIBAR collaborations. These in turn create new HIBAR
research opportunities for another generation of students.

Graduate students increasingly have a strong desire to positively impact society, and they seek meaningful, engaged research opportunities that would allow them to fulfill this desire. Many students, however, are unable to find fulfilling research opportunities, in part because aspects of academic research culture have historically been largely inward-looking. For example, some practices within the academic system unintentionally motivate faculty members (and by extension their graduate students) to de-emphasize partnering with real-world experts and instead follow a more narrowly-defined research excellence path. This can repel some of the students that universities should most want to attract and retain, since those students are left with a perception that university research is out of touch with the needs of society.

The HIBAR Research Buddies initiative aims to create a welcoming community for students who feel this way, by reinforcing their sense of belonging within the academic research environment.

In April 2023, the University of British Columbia (UBC) launched a new student-led project to build a community of early career researchers, emphasizing graduate students, who care deeply about engaging directly with experts working outside of academia through their research.

We demonstrated that there is clear and significant interest among UBC graduate students across both campuses (Vancouver and Okanagan) to belong to the HIBAR Research Buddies community, and we have designed a framework for future activities that will build a vibrant and engaged community over the next several years.

A core aspect of the project was assessing its effectiveness and sharing the lessons learned, so that the resulting community can continue to grow, both at UBC and beyond. You can read the full pilot project report here.

Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive (HIBAR) projects aim to discover new knowledge and address societal problems, and they do so in deep partnership with problem-solvers outside of academia. These projects have always existed in universities, but they are not common: we estimate roughly 5% of research projects at UBC would be described as truly HIBAR. Students who participate in HIBAR projects gain opportunities for meaningful societal connections through their research and, by highlighting such projects and the important team role played by graduate students, this pilot project will help reinforce the university’s commitment to improving the world through research.

Because HIBAR projects are not common, students who are currently participating in a HIBAR project may not know of other examples of such work at UBC, and students who are not currently participating in a HIBAR project may not even know they exist. For these reasons, focused and intentional activities are necessary to build awareness of HIBAR projects and to enable those who are particularly interested in this type of research to connect with and learn from one another.

HIBAR projects have two important characteristics: dual motivations (generating new knowledge and tackling a societal problem) and dual leadership (academics and external experts). The HIBAR Research Buddies community enables students who are particularly interested in this type of research to connect with and learn from one another. The dual motivations aspect (generating new knowledge and tackling a societal problem) is well-addressed in a wide variety of ways by existing initiatives and programs. The dual leadership aspect is less well addressed among the general graduate student population, and for this reason, we make this a focal point for the activities of this community. (If there is true cross-sectoral co-leadership, the dual aims to discover new knowledge and address a societal problem are almost certainly present within the project.)

(1) graduate students at UBC who are participating (or have participated) in HIBAR projects

(2) graduate students at UBC who are interested but not yet working on HIBAR projects

HIBAR Research Buddies focuses on graduate students, and also welcomes participation by those at other early career stages, including postdoctoral fellows and undergraduate students. Activities are open to individuals from all UBC faculties, other universities, and non-academic partners.

There are a number of well-established initiatives at UBC that have demonstrated significant interest among graduate students in societally engaged research, including the Public Scholars Initiative, the Public Humanities Hub, and the Institute for Community Engaged Research. Like these initiatives, the HIBAR Research Buddies community is similarly motivated better to align university research with the needs of society, and it also has several unique and complementary characteristics:

• It is a student-led initiative. It is a community led by students for students. This student leadership will ensure that the community’s focus, support, and activities reflect the unique perspectives and needs of like-minded students. 
• Community activities are open to all, regardless of their research discipline or program (masters and doctoral) and regardless of whether they are currently participating in societally engaged research.  
• The value of co-leadership of projects by academics and external experts is a focal point.

The HIBAR Research Buddies community focuses on activities that:

• Connect like-minded students with each other and reinforce their sense of belonging within the academic environment
• Showcase impactful HIBAR projects, building awareness of the breadth of this type of research in many disciplines and emphasizing the role of graduate students as key members of these research teams.
• Highlight opportunities for students to participate in activities that will, over time, help to change the academic culture toward more societally-engaged research.
• Highlight that HIBAR projects offer experiential opportunities for students that can lead to many different career paths, within and outside of academia.
• Offer valuable opportunities for students to connect with individuals outside of academia who share their research interests, facilitating potential engagement in research collaborations or networking opportunities.
• Highlight best practices to nurture effective cross-sectoral collaborations as a graduate student
• Share learnings and challenges that are typically faced in HIBAR projects