No short cuts: building trust in community-based research with ethnocultural groups.

Racialized immigrant older adults (RIOAs) in Canada and other Global North countries face significant health inequities, yet remain underrepresented in health research and lack culturally appropriate health programs. While trust-building is essential for equitable community-engaged research, it requires time-intensive efforts to address cultural nuances, systemic barriers, and historical harms—often conflicting with institutional pressures for efficiency. This commentary explores the tension between trust-building and expediency in research with RIOAs, drawing on nine years of community-engaged research and existing literature. We argue that current research systems must evolve to prioritize trust as a fundamental requirement, not an optional step. Without systemic changes—including flexible timelines, dedicated resources for relationship-building, and institutional recognition of community-engaged work—research risks perpetuating harm to marginalized populations. We propose actionable strategies to balance trust and efficiency, such as leveraging existing community partnerships, co-creating research designs, and fostering reciprocity. Future research could systematically evaluate engagement approaches, quantify the costs of meaningful trust-building, and develop frameworks that center cultural safety and power-sharing. Trust cannot remain an assumed ideal; it must become an operational priority to ensure research benefits the communities it seeks to serve.