Transdisciplinary approaches to American Indian and rural population health research

Overall Summary The purpose of the Transdisciplinary Center for Population Health (TCPH) COBRE is to facilitate the development of American Indian (AI) and rural health research in South Dakota. The theme that defines this center is the application of an ecological framework to address important issues in AI and rural health populations. All of the projects incorporate transdisciplinary teams, including perspectives directly from the involved populations. This initial and continuous engagement creates an environment where research results can be immediately disseminated and applied. These selected Project Leaders have each started down the path towards research independence and are on the cusp of being competitive at the R01 level. This proposed COBRE center will allow for the needed mentorship and concentrated funding for that development to occur. These Project Leaders will then graduate off of COBRE funding, assume larger mentorship roles within the center, and allow for the recruitment of new researchers to build our capacity and increase the impact of research on AI and rural health. A plan has been created with national training institutes that specialize in AI and rural health research to help draw a new group of talented, energetic and creative researchers to the region. The TCPH includes core services that focus on the unique regulatory needs of human subjects research, particularly the complexity that exists with multiple research partnerships, and data management and statistical tools to optimize the quality and utility of data.