The power of researcher-practitioner partnerships in implementation science: a community case study in sexual violence prevention program evaluation

Many institutions of higher education recognize the importance of sexual violence prevention efforts. However, often practitioners tasked with offering prevention efforts lack the time and expertise to assess programs. Researcher-practitioner partnerships offer a solution that provides mutual benefits and is reinforced by implementation science. Through our own experiences in a six-year collaboration between a university research center and a small private college's sexual violence prevention team we discovered the value of researcher-practitioner partnerships. Our partnership focused on evaluating a multi-year, required sexual violence prevention curriculum, currently implementing best-practice skill-building and prevention-techniques for college students at a small private college. Robust evaluation efforts, made possible through the researcher-practitioner partnership, have been essential in gaining key insights and making data-informed improvements to ensure effectiveness of the curriculum. The manuscript provides background on the importance of sexual violence prevention on college campuses and how implementation science and effective researcher-practitioner partnerships can address challenges. Findings from the evaluation project will be shared in future publications, allowing this article to focus on best practices, methodology, and lessons learned related to the researcher-practitioner partnership that align with key implementation science constructs. We aim to offer actionable methods and strategies for other researchers, evaluators, and practitioners to strengthen prevention efforts in higher education settings and beyond.