Montana IDeA Community Engagement Core Project Summary The MT IDeA Community Engagement Core (CEC) has been critical to the program’s research success for the last 20 years. The CEC is a shared core between MT INBRE and the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE), a phase 2 COBRE program at Montana State University. The core collaborates with three networks: the MT INBRE statewide network (16 partner institutions), the CAIRHE Health Equity Network (local, statewide, and regional health agencies, foundations, and institutes), and RAIN (Regional Alliance of INBRE Networks), which includes all seven states in the Western Region (AK, ID, HI, MT, NM, NV, WY). Working among these networks enhances the collective impact of the CEC by facilitating broad public access to research findings: sharing of data and new models for ensuring a healthy MT population, providing additional opportunities for shared grant funding, and enhancing collaborative community-based participatory research (CBPR), such as the impacts of climate change on health in our state. Overall, the CEC elevates solutions to health disparities and helps to improve the health of all populations in Montana. To maximize its impact, the CEC will accomplish 3 Specific Aims. Specific Aim 1: Train investigators and students involved in community-based participatory research (CBPR). In addition to the CEC’s existing portfolio of formalized training tools spanning introductory to advanced topics, the core is working with the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS), a CTSA at the University of Washington (UW), to leverage expertise on both sides to build a solid educational platform for investigators. Specific Aim 2: Expand the Health Equity Network and partnerships in Montana and regionally. These partnerships are an excellent complement to the academic institutional network developed by MT INBRE and have enhanced and expanded research and its collective impact through community partnerships. Specific Aim 3: Develop strategies for increased and improved dissemination and implementation of research and development of interventions. Analysis of CBPR studies during INBRE IV revealed that in many cases information and findings were not widely disseminated. We recognize that uncommunicated knowledge and limited availability of research findings impede the value of many CBPR studies. The core will offer academic-community partnership training for disseminating research statewide and regionally, with the vision that research outcomes and interventions can be replicated in other communities facing similar health equity challenges.