# Community Engagement Core

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2024 · $264,733

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The central premise of the Community Engagement (CE) Core is that communities at greatest risk for negative
health consequences due to climate change are the same communities who will make the most profound
strides to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledges (ITEKs; also
referred to as Native Science) refers to the evolving knowledge acquired by indigenous communities over
millennia through their direct contact with the environment and has recently been recognized as having great
potential to be leveraged to mitigate the impacts of climate change. To date, much of the existing literature on
the capacity of ITEKs to inform efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change exists primarily outside of the
U.S. Additionally, and as reflected in the White House’s Commitment to Elevating Indigenous Knowledge in
Federal Policy, efforts are urgently needed to ensure American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN), as well as rural,
representatives are at the same table as researchers, clinicians, and policy makers who are discussing the
results and implications of research on climate and health. Through the Mni Sota Center for Climate Change
and Health we will build capacity for innovative research related to climate change and health as experienced
by the two communities who we posit will make the most profound strides to mitigate the impacts of climate
change: AIAN and rural communities. This will be achieved by centering ITEKs, conducting community
engagement with AIAN and rural communities, and by leveraging the multidisciplinary assets and expertise of
the University of Minnesota and our partner institutions. The objective of the CE Core is to co-develop, assist,
implement, and evaluate strategies that will catalyze the Center’s capacity to examine the impacts of climate
change on health and develop action-oriented solutions to protect AIAN and rural persons. The CE Core has
the following aims: Aim 1: Co-develop a research agenda that leverages ITEKs and Western environmental
health approaches that identifies a) key research questions related to climate change and health experienced
by American Indian and rural persons that can be prioritized in future research and b) data sovereignty
guidelines and other recommendations for culturally safe research practices; Aim 2: Assist Center efforts in
navigating climate- and health-related community engaged research by providing expertise in CE from
planning to dissemination and culturally safe research practices including data sovereignty; Aim 3: Implement a
Citizen Science Program that entails digital storytelling (a form of ITEKs) with AIAN youth; Aim 4: Evaluate the
Center’s reach and engagement efforts via a multi-pronged approach informed by the RE-AIM Framework,
Goodman Assessment of CE, and an Indigenous Evaluation entailing storytelling. The CE Core will be highly
impactful given that it represents a braiding together of Native and Western sci...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10981737
- **Project number:** 1P20MD019990-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Kyle X Hill
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $264,733
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-23 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10981737

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10981737, Community Engagement Core (1P20MD019990-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10981737. Licensed CC0.

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