The American Indian-Alaska Native Clinical and Translational Research Center (AI-AN CTRC) has the goal of developing the capacity of Montana and Alaska to address the unique problems these state's Native communities face in health disparities. AN-AI-AN CTRC will increase numbers of, train, support, and mentor investigators from AK and MT through research service cores and funding of community engagement research projects to address health disparities in MT's and AK's Native communities. Montana State University will be the home institution for this project and will partner with Blackfeet Community College (BCC), University of Montana (UM), University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANCTH) of Anchorage, and Southcentral Foundation (SCF) of Anchorage. BCC, ANCTH, and SCF are owned and managed by tribal communities. To realize these goals, AI-AN CTRC will: 1. Strengthen Montana's and Alaska's clinical and translational research infrastructure through continued development of shared facilities, intellectual resources, research collaborations, focused working groups, and training opportunities. MT and AK established investigators will develop 5 research cores which include: the Community Engagement and Outreach Core (CEOC), which will guide investigators through the process of community engagement research; the Professional Development Core (PDC), which will train and mentor investigators in clinical health disparities research; the Pilot Project Program Core (PPPC) will fund pilot research projects to facilitate the development of fundable programs by new clinical investigators; the Research Design, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Core (RDEBC), will provide expertise in epidemiological and statistical methodologies needed at all levels of the clinical research process; and the Tracking and Evaluation Core (TEC) which will constantly monitor the progress of the center and its components. 2. Increase numbers, mentor, and develop the careers of clinical investigators in Native health disparities research in Montana and Alaska. This will be accomplished by developing the research capacity of new clinical investigators, developing interest of scientists not already working in Native health to build programs in this area, developing the ability of established clinical investigators in Native healt research to form interdisciplinary research teams including basic science researchers. 3. Expand and support sustainable and culturally responsible community engagement research that will mitigate health disparities in Montana's and Alaska's Native communities. The AI-AN CTRC will support MT and AK investigators to establish relationships with Native communities, build research capacity in the communities, and generate preliminary data required for grant proposals to funding agencies such as NIH. This will result in sustainable programs in AK and MT that will result in improved health of these state's Native communities.
Alaska and Montana have significant Alaskan Native and American Indian populations, respectively, who experience some of the greatest health disparities of any ethnic or racial group. We propose to build clinical and translational research infrastructure that will develop and expand Native health research capacity in Alaska and Montana, which in turn will result in improved health of these Native people.
