Supplement: Empowering Concerned Communities with Validated Approaches to Environmental Citizen Science

The University of Kentucky Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences (UK-CARES) will be established as a transdisciplinary Environmental Health Sciences Core Center (EHS CC) designed to develop and operationalize strategic infrastructure assets relevant to cutting-edge environmental health research and provide leadership for scientific and programmatic activities supporting ongoing, new, and evolving studies in this area. The Administrative Core is an essential component of this EHS CC providing communication, coordination, and oversight to ensure overall operations and scientific integration of all UK-CARES components. In addition, the Administrative Core facilitates integration of goals with community needs and concerns through dynamic community outreach and engagement activities to enable effective translation of findings to and from the affected communities. The Administrative Core staff will closely monitor the effectiveness of UK-CARES programs and initiatives to ensure that the Center resources enhance member research productivity. Specific aims are to 1) provide scientific and programmatic leadership and coordinate and integrate the Center’s components and activities as well as to facilitate communications and interactions across all Center components and with affected communities and community stakeholders; 2) organize and facilitate program activities, internal and external communications, and research discussions among Center members, community members, and internal and external advisory board members, including retreats, consultant interactions, seminars, Research Interest Group meetings, and media and newsletters; integrate community outreach and engagement activities to ensure that multi-directional translation and communication remain at the forefront of UK-CARES efforts; 3) provide financial oversight, facilitate resource support, and ensure regulatory compliance related to the Center’s research and community activities and maintain Center records and measures of success including use of UK-CARES facilities and publications, pilot project awards, and new grant applications resulting from preliminary data enabled by UK-CARES; 4) coordinate the Career Development Program to promote collaboration among basic, clinical, and population scientists with a broad range of skills within a rich environment for early stage investigators to develop diverse professional skills and to attract mid-level investigators and scientists in other fields through opportunities to focus on environmentally induced disease; and 5) evaluate the productivity, effectiveness, and appropriateness of UK-CARES activities, determine the Center membership, assess scientific opportunities and areas for collaboration among members and citizen scientists, and coordinate UK-CARES infrastructure assessments as intellectual needs change to accommodate new opportunities for collaboration. The expected outcome is a set of seamless interactions throughout UK-CARES.