Scientific Initiatives

LRI’s Scientific Initiatives showcase UT Austin’s expertise in addressing the most pressing issues facing Latino communities and the nation. These initiatives advance innovative, data-driven research in five key areas: Health and Well-being, Community, Public Safety, Civic Engagement, and Climate. Rooted in our mission to cultivate a community of engaged scholars, LRI brings together faculty and students across disciplines to generate actionable knowledge that informs policy, strengthens communities, and drives meaningful change at the local, state, and national level. This work reflects UT Austin’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and public impact.

LRI welcomes collaboration with researchers across UT Austin and beyond, inviting partners to join in advancing impactful, community-engaged scholarship. lri@austin.utexas.edu

The Policy Resource Library is an extension of the LRI’s commitment to informing policy and driving action through rigorous, interdisciplinary research. This repository provides policy briefs, issue briefs, white papers, and other research-driven resources designed to bridge the gap between academia and real-world impact. Aligned with LRI’s vision of creating healthy, productive environments for Latino communities, this library provides evidence-based guidance to policymakers, community leaders, and researchers. The LRI collaborates with key research partners, including the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis (IUPRA), and the Latino Texas Policy Center (LTPC).

Find all of LRI's policy and research briefs as published on Texas ScholarWorks.

On Intersectionality

Intersectional research is a theoretical framework and strategy that begins with the experiences of marginalized groups and examines the interconnected structures of power that affect individual and group identities and choices. This approach promotes social justice and social change by linking research and practice. 

On Implementation Science

The Latino Research Institute’s action-based approach is informed by the lessons of implementation science, defined as “the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, and, hence, to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services.”

One of the common vexations of social science research is that it simply takes too long for a research study to have any observable impact in the community. This delay has, unfortunately, sown skepticism among the community partners that many researchers rely on to effectively carry out research. By engaging with implementation science on the front end of a project, our researchers are more likely to arrive at actionable outcomes and provide increased returns to the community members whose time and effort have heavily informed the research. In other words, we want our work to do something. Implementation science helps us do that.  

On Community-Based Participatory Research

Social science research in Latino communities depends on healthy community relationships. Unfortunately, there is a long history of academic institutions abusing these relationships and exploiting communities for their own academic gain. Even researchers with the best intentions are likely to face reluctant or even hostile communities who are justified in feeling, at times, like the purported mutual benefits of any given project are anything but that. In many cases, community wisdom is  discounted and local activism is ignored, when in fact, both are essential additions to any community study. 

For these reasons, the Latino Research Institute has devoted a considerable amount of time to developing best practices when it comes to community-engaged research. Our researchers are members of the community and approach their work as such, mindful that it’s not only capital S scholars that bring something to the table. 

Research Repository

Find all of LRI's policy and research briefs as published on Texas ScholarWorks