# Improving Cancer Outcomes in Native American Communities (ICON) - Community Engagement Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR · 2024 · $653,499

## Abstract

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE: SUMMARY
Community engagement is the foundation of our approach in ICON (the Improving Cancer Outcomes in Native
American Communities U19 Center). Each of our Projects is embedded in long-term collaborations, and our
Leadership Team has decades of experience in community-engaged research with tribes, which will help to
ensure that systematic and meaningful community engagement is woven into every aspect of ICON's work. By
integrating members of the CE Core in each Project team, as well as our Administrative Core, we position
ourselves to channel lessons learned from these established partnerships into more general guidance for
ICON community engagement, including the development of toolkits to support both university- and
community-based researchers in partnerships to advance cancer health equity. Specifically, we propose to 1)
establish a central Hub for community engagement on cancer; 2) support the continued development of
community-engaged research protocols through Engagement Studios; 3) translate ICON research into
improvements in health and health care for AI/AN patients, communities, and nations through Accelerators;
and 4) engage tribal communities in dialogues about ICON research through Community Forums. Our CE work
is embedded in frameworks that promote respectful inclusion of Indigenous American perspectives and
knowledge into existing and new models of cancer research and care, as well as articulations for achieving
health equity and systems transformation through community engagement. Of central importance is the
advancement of integrations of Indigenous and European American perspectives and knowledge in ways that
overcome simplistic oppositions and generate continued progress toward more authentic relationships based
on collaborative partnerships, multidirectional dialogue, co-learning, shared leadership, and an investment in
addressing community priorities in research. The CE Core will serve as the main resource for community
dissemination in ICON as we continue to move towards research that is not only responsive to community
priorities, but also applied successfully to them. Importantly, the quality and outcomes of our partnerships will
be an explicit component of our evaluation plan to ensure that all ICON endeavors will be regularly modified,
as needed, to improve the experience of community partners and the impact of our research in Oklahoma
Tribal Nations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11161059
- **Project number:** 1U19MD020537-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** PAUL G SPICER
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $653,499
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-17 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11161059

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11161059, Improving Cancer Outcomes in Native American Communities (ICON) - Community Engagement Core (1U19MD020537-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11161059. Licensed CC0.

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