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The past several years has seen increased interest in expanding physics education research (PER) studies to the two-year college (TYC) physics community. This interest is driven by the knowledge that while a significant portion of the students taking introductory physics courses do so at TYCs, those students are highly underrepresented in PER. The considerable teaching loads and lack of research support for TYC faculty make it difficult for TYC faculty to independently enact PER. Faculty outside of TYCs can build successful, productive, and equitable research partnerships with TYC faculty to alleviate these constraints. In this paper, we review TYC demographics that distinguish those students from populations traditionally studied in PER. We describe the challenges faced by TYC faculty in performing research as well as examples of successful research and scholarship of teaching and learning. Finally, we outline some successful TYC/PER partnerships and share initial recommendations that can inform TYC and four-year college faculty desiring to build effective and equitable PER partnerships.