Integrated Health Sciences Facilities Core

PROJECT SUMMARY – Integrated Health Sciences Facilities Core The mission of the OSU EHS CC is a) to improve environmental public health and b) to improve the understanding of the relationships among environmental exposures, human biology, and disease. To drive translational research that has a transformative impact on health, there is a critical need to unify environmental health research with stakeholder needs. We need a significant pivot in the ways we work together to develop and share expertise, tools, resources, and data. While many laboratories and public organizations have contributed in isolation, their research has not realized transformative health impacts because they do not adequately co-produce knowledge or leverage collective activities, resources, and experience. We propose to transform the practice of translational environmental health science by co- producing actionable knowledge with stakeholders. The Integrated Health Sciences Facilities Core (IHSFC) will enable stakeholder-engaged translational research projects to achieve two goals: 1) Create science-based decision support that stakeholders will apply to improve environmental public health. 2) Cultivate long-lasting relationships that break down barriers between scientists and stakeholders, open rich channels of communication, create an enduring scientist-stakeholder community, and build the environmental health literacy of stakeholders by teaching them where they can find state-of-the-art environmental health science information on demand. The IHSFC will provide training and resources to establish team science-based collaboration that transforms the way we perform environmental health research across the translational spectrum. The IHSFC will incorporate researcher and stakeholder experiences, needs, values, and expertise into the development of cohesive and comprehensive project plans. The IHSFC will plan, execute, oversee, and evaluate cross-sectoral research that generates actionable information. We will disseminate and communicate our method of translational environmental research, its outcomes, and its impacts. These are our specific aims: Aim 1: Catalyze stakeholder-engaged research projects that provides evidence-based support for stakeholder decisions Aim 2: Facilitate the execution of stakeholder-engaged, translational research and co- production of knowledge. Aim 3: Disseminate research findings and research products to stakeholder partners and to broader groups of stakeholders. In this new model of translational environmental health research, the IHSFC will lead and coordinate cross- sectoral projects in which scientists and stakeholders collaborate to promote translational impact far beyond the walls of our region and the environmental health science field at large.