Assessing research activity and capacity of community-based organizations: development and pilot testing of an instrument.

Background: Although awareness of the importance of the research capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) is growing, a uniform framework of the research capacity domains within CBOs has not yet been developed.

Objectives: To develop a framework and instrument (the Community REsearch Activity assessment Tool [CREAT]) for assessing the research activity and capacity of CBOs that incorporates awareness of the different data collection and analysis priorities of CBOs.

Methods: We conducted a review of existing tools for assessing research capacity to identify key capacity domains.