URI-led STEEP's (Sources, Transport, Exposure and Effects of PFASs) Research Translation Core (RTC) will leverage and build upon already existing relationships and communication networks to disseminate information on PFASs and their human health impacts, and STEEP's scientific accomplishments to its stakeholders, including other SRP centers and their associated researchers; state and federal regulatory agencies, especially the MA Departments of Environmental Protection (MADEP) and Public Health (MADPH), RI Departments of Environmental Management (RIDEM) and Health (RIDOH), U.S. EPA, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR); managers and decision-makers at federal, state, and local levels; and communities on Cape Cod, MA, within the hydrologic plume of the military/firefighting training base that have potential PFAS exposure through drinking water. The RTC will enhance traditional bi-directional communication by making the process an iterative one that constantly closes the informational loop on ever more specific concerns guided by scientific findings. The RTC will make STEEP's research results and the implications of these findings readily accessible to stakeholders to assist them in understanding PFASs effects and characterizing risk. As part of the iterative process, RTC will embed in the overall communication strategy opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback to the SRP researchers at regular intervals, and a clear timeline for researchers to provide updates in response to community concerns. As this iterative process continues, stakeholders and researchers will narrow in on scientific questions and research that have needed management and regulatory applications. To accomplish the overarching goal, RTC will develop targeted messages for: 1) researchers within STEEP and the broader SRP network; 2) state and federal agencies including NIEHS, U.S. EPA, ATSDR, and Tribal councils; 3) other end-users with a focus on communities on Cape Cod, MA, and the Faroe Islands; and 4) additional groups as identified by the Expertise Enhancing Network. Moreover, the RTC will provide appropriate and timely information on PFASs and unfolding research findings in order to: 1. Ensure STEEP's results are widely disseminated guided by principles of the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change (TTM); 2. Provide information to state and federal regulators as well as industry leaders to influence the mitigation of PFASs use to protect human health; 3. Facilitate technology transfer where appropriate; 4. Synergize relationship with CEC to ensure dissemination of information to impacted communities, and improve communication techniques of STEEP trainees, scientists, and researchers; and 5. Coordinate broad-spectrum outreach and communication efforts in partnership with CEC and TC.
From scientific presentations to social media presence, the Research Translation Core (RTC) will convey PFAS public health concerns and promote risk characterization by connecting intra- and inter-STEEP researchers, stakeholders, and information end-users in a communication network with RTC as the hub. The RTC will work for: 1) a consistency of message, style, language, and branding regardless of from which project or core the information originates; 2) an appropriate level of complexity and delivery depending on the target audience; 3) a carefully considered explanation of potential emerging contaminant threats to human health and the environment; and 4) a commitment to objectively present information in a way that does not focus on blaming any particular player for actions in the past but rather promotes informed risk characterization going forward. !
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