Capacity-Building

Over the past two decades tribes have increasingly exercised their sovereignty with regards to the oversight of research conducted with its members and ownership of the products of that research, including data, publications, copyrights, and intellectual property rights. In order for significant health disparities to be resolved

via federally funded health research, tribes need the ability to own, control, and use the data and other products created. This capacity-building project will build research infrastructure to foster health-related research and opportunities to enhance the cadre of students and faculty in health-related fields through

developing that capacity at Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (FDL) to provide access to social and biomedical resources and strengthen the research capabilities of the communities and their researchers. Specifically, our aims are to: 1. Coordinate NARCH tribal partnerships among FDL, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (SWO), Native American

Community Clinic (NACC), additional tribes/tribal organizations, and academic researchers to grow our research network in order to build relationships and encourage future research collaboration. 2. Develop the FDL Research Data Repository to gather, store, and curate multi-site tribal research data

from the NARCH Epidemiologic Project to Increase Indigenous Capacity (EPIIC), as well as from other past and future research projects conducted at FDL. 3. Hire, train, and mentor a FDL Research Data Manager to be responsible for organizing, storing, and analyzing data as efficiently as possible, while upholding rigorous, agreed-upon standards in privacy,

confidentiality, and security; and to respond in a timely way to tribal and regional partners’ requests for data and reports. 4. Develop and provide in-person and webinar-based trainings on research ethics for faculty researchers, students, IRB members, and tribal institutional officials. By creating this model within one tribe, we lay the foundation for a regional center for tribal research to gather,

curate, and disseminate data that will serve a broad and diverse set of AIAN communities and promote tribally- initiated and -engaged research.