# ECHO Coordinating Center

> **NIH NIH U2C** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $14,970,707

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Little is known about how genetic and environmental factors interact to affect child health outcomes. To
address these knowledge gaps, the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program
promises to leverage extant pediatric cohorts to test new hypotheses of how environmental exposures impact
pediatric health. The Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) proposes to serve as the ECHO Coordinating
Center (ECHO CC) to provide the organizational framework for the management, direction, and overall
coordination of all common ECHO activities. The DCRI is uniquely positioned to lead this ambitious initiative.
As the world’s largest academic research organization, the DCRI manages nearly 30 active network and
administrative coordinating center grants and has emerged as a leader in pediatric clinical research. The DCRI
will leverage its broad contacts and networks in the larger pediatric research community, as well as established
relationships with key university and industry collaborators, to support research in this underserved population.
The economy of scale created by DCRI’s enterprise allows the use of common approaches to network
functions and the ability to bring extra expertise to bear when inevitable problems and accelerated timelines
arise. The overall goal of the ECHO CC is to efficiently manage collaborative research within the ECHO
infrastructure to better understand the impact of environmental exposures on health outcomes in children. To
achieve this vision, the ECHO CC will establish three components that will develop and implement innovative
strategies across the design and conduct of research within ECHO: (1) the Steering Committee Support
Component will coordinate and provide logistical support for all activities of the ECHO Steering and Executive
Committees, External Scientific Board, NIH ECHO Team, ECHO cohorts, ECHO Cores, Data Analysis Center,
and biorepositories; (2) the Scientific Focus Area Component will coordinate common research activities
among the four ECHO scientific focus areas by developing ECHO-wide and focus area–specific protocols,
procedures, and study documents to facilitate harmonization of outcomes specific to each scientific focus area;
and (3) the Opportunities and Infrastructure Fund (OIF) Component will distribute funds to ECHO investigators
to promote new projects, tools, and technologies and ensure successful completion of their projects.
Overseeing all three of these components will be the ECHO CC Administrative Component. The ECHO CC
goals will be met using established infrastructure within the DCRI and will be customized to meet the variable
needs of the ECHO Cohorts, Steering Committee, and investigators. Using the highest research standards, our
team will accomplish the goals set out by the NIH in managing this critically important collaborative effort.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10015356
- **Project number:** 5U2COD023375-05
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DANIEL K. BENJAMIN
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $14,970,707
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10015356

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10015356, ECHO Coordinating Center (5U2COD023375-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10015356. Licensed CC0.

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