Translation Core

PROJECT SUMMARY (TRANSLATION CORE) While some progress has been made in translating children’s environmental health (CEH) research from basic research to successful interventions, the pace of uptake and adoption of interventions for widescale impact remains slow, and few interventions have been adapted for minority populations or low-income settings with disproportionate exposure. To achieve higher population-wide impact, CEH researchers require training, mentoring, and collaboration with experts from diverse disciplines to cross the translational bridge and successfully scale evidence-based interventions for maximum impact. The goal of the NYU CEHRT Translation Core is to advance research translation and implementation of evidence-based interventions and policies to prevent and mitigate harms associated with environmental exposures on child development. Our strategy focuses on providing CEH scientists with opportunities to envision and build out translation agendas relevant to their CEH research focus, foster new collaborations, obtain pilot funding to support moving their environmental health research along a translational spectrum as outlined in the NIEHS Translational Research Framework, and receive ongoing technical support and mentoring. Our broad base of members span traditional environmental health disciplines of exposure science, toxicology, environmental medicine and engineering, as well as broader translational fields of community engagement, epidemiology, implementation science, health economics, health communications and health policy. Together, we have built an extremely strong track record of moving across the five rings of research described in the NIEHS translational framework. The Translation Core’s specific aims are to: (1) support new collaborations between CEH researchers, scientists from other fields, practitioners, and community stakeholders; (2) solicit, review, and select 4 one-year pilot projects annually; provide continuous mentorship and technical support to pilot program awardees; (3) disseminate CEH research findings using a repository of translation tools and products (interventions, tools, methods, messages, etc.) for multiple communication channels and multi-sector use; (4) compare cost- effectiveness of different interventions to protect children, and quantify health and economic benefits of reductions in exposure to hazards. Overall, the Translation Core advances environmental health research from discovery to public health practice by fostering important dialogue and collaborations between multiple disciplines, as well as building capacity and expertise among CEH researchers in performing multidisciplinary translational research.