# UK ASCEND (Achieving Success in Community-Engaged research to elimiNate Disparities)

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY · 2024 · $46,464

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY– COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORE (CEDC)
The Community Engagement and Dissemination Core of University of Kentucky (UK) ASCEND (Achieving
Success in Community-Engaged research to elimiNate Disparities) provides a critical and integral component
of UK ASCEND’s objective, to advance health equity by promoting community-engaged research (CER)
success among early-stage investigators (ESIs) from diverse backgrounds through the ASCEND Scholars
Program (ASP), a novel and comprehensive CER Training Program followed by a rigorous CER Pilot Program;
and bi-directional engagement with community stakeholders through a Community Advisory Board (CAB).
Fostering such research success through community engagement is critical everywhere, and particularly in
Kentucky, recently ranked as #50 in national health standing, with the nation’s highest cancer mortality and
among the highest rates of other diseases that commonly affect health disparities populations. The mission of
the CEDC is to ensure that these ESIs, “ASCEND Scholars,” form and sustain productive research
collaborations and engage in impactful dissemination activities with diverse community stakeholders. The
CEDC is led by experienced, NIH-funded community-engaged health equity researchers and supported by
strong and enduring community and institutional partnerships. The CEDC has the following aims: (1) Cultivate
bidirectional interactions between ESIs and community stakeholders to stimulate research collaborations and
participatory planning processes and (2) Disseminate research findings to a broad range of audiences to
ensure translation of research results into sustainable community-level and system-level changes that advance
health equity. These aims will be achieved by leveraging existing and developing new institution-wide
resources, coordinating interactions with a CAB to facilitate equitable and sustainable relationships with
community stakeholders, and collaborating with the other UK ASCEND Cores. The CEDC will achieve bi-
directional interaction between ESIs and community stakeholders by managing a central Resource Catalog
that supports CER infrastructure, developing a Research Dissemination Toolkit and Individualized CER Plans,
and hosting an annual community-researcher summit. The dissemination and translation aim will be achieved
by the provision and exchange of evidence-based health information and ESI research findings through UK’s
Community Health Worker Program and the creation of a Sustainability Planning Guide. The CEDC constitutes
a critical resource interwoven throughout UK ASCEND. Such bi-directional collaboration enhances the
likelihood of achieving UK ASCEND’s outcomes, ESI CER career development, community engagement, and
ESI research success. The CEDC will promote the integration and authentic engagement of community
perspectives into ESIs’ CER training and pilot projects, critical to overcoming significant health disparities and
advancing health equity...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10899959
- **Project number:** 1P50MD019476-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lovoria B Williams
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $46,464
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-13 → 2029-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10899959

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10899959, UK ASCEND (Achieving Success in Community-Engaged research to elimiNate Disparities) (1P50MD019476-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10899959. Licensed CC0.

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