Northwest Regional Research Center

The Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) is proposing a partnership of Northwest Tribes and Tribal organizations to develop a Northwest Regional Research Center (NWRRC) to enhance Tribal data science and ensure Tribal data sovereignty. Fragmented implementation of evidence-based interventions continues to undermine population health among American Indians and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people and their communities. A coordinated and transdisciplinary research infrastructure is urgently needed. The proposed NWRRC will serve as a multidisciplinary hub to advance population health through innovative, data-driven, and community-engaged research. Public health in the United States faces mounting challenges that require coordinated, science-driven solutions. To address these complex problems, the NWRRC will foster collaboration across disciplines, strengthen the public health workforce, and accelerate the translation of research into practice and policy. The proposed NWRRC aims to foster rigorous community-driven scientific research that is relevant to policy. The NWRRC will enable health service providers to serve as investigators to tackle the upstream social determinants of health while strengthening the pathway for a robust line of research. By focusing on translation from discovery to implementation, the NWRRC aligns closely with the NIH mission to improve health and reduce illness through research that has meaningful, real-world impact. This project is responsive to the Native Collective Research Effort to Enhance Wellness (NCREW) goal of conducting community-led research while improving data and increasing Tribes’ research capacity. It enhances culturally-grounded, strengths-based, effective, and sustainable intervention strategies, as well as the Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative (HEAL) goal of working closely with communities to implement research programs for prevention, harm reduction, and recovery. Through the NCREW award, NPAIHB will provide targeted training, technical assistance, and support to achieve the development of a community-based research infrastructure specific to Tribes and their provider-researchers. The overall goal is to simultaneously build an infrastructure for research, train provider-researchers, and develop at least one research project, while also meeting the specific needs of each of the participating Tribes.