SUMMARY- INVESTIGATOR DEVELOPMENT CORE The Pilot Program will emphasize high quality research that promotes collaboration between the Center and the partner communities, and promotes development of new investigators as they strive to establish independent research programs in Native environmental health disparities research. The Pilot Program will align with the Center’s mission and theme by providing sub-awards to partner organizations in support of innovative research ideas of importance to environmental health disparities. The overarching objective of the Pilot Program is to encourage active participation of Center partners to develop a sustained, powerful influence on reducing health disparities by promoting quality research and building long-term research capacity. We will work with community partners to identify research questions and develop research approaches to address gaps in knowledge related to the impacts of environmental health disparities within our partner communities. We will identify specific research questions of concern related to exposure from burning trash, microplastics, or environmental metals. Center researchers will work directly with community members and research partners to construct hypothesis driven research proposals that directly address community concerns and that fit within the scope and capabilities of the Center. We will work to promote research opportunities for young investigators and members of health disparity populations through recruitment, mentoring, research training and professional development opportunities. We will leverage off existing programs and Centers, take advantage of strong institutional resources and support, and build on our existing success to recruit promising young investigators from members of health disparity populations to our Center. We will provide mentoring support, research training and professional opportunities that will promote successful completion of projects and promote long-term research capacity.