Next Generation for Tribal Health Research (GEN4)

About This Grant

The Next Generation for Tribal Health Research (GEN4) program fosters exposure, skills development and mentoring activities for undergraduate and non-degree seeking community trainees to grow a comprehensive biomedical research workforce in support of Tribal health. Growing the biomedical research workforce serving American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities requires a specific set of skills and understandings of the jurisdictional, legal, and political histories that sustain Tribal peoples and communities. Tribal settings can vary greatly and have different resources, priorities, and value systems from one another, and from most academic institutions. A trained research workforce that understands and is knowledgeable about how these distinctions affect health and capacities for research in Tribal communities is of critical importance to ensure the development of impactful research for Tribal health. GEN4 centers training in meaningful collaboration with a national team of mentors with experience in Tribal health research and AIAN-serving health systems across the country representing ongoing excellence in AIAN community-engaged health research and trainee development. GEN4 will provide a national cohort of trainees two distinct opportunities to support the development of this unique workforce: the Fall/Spring Training Series – an annual series of didactic and experiential activities to provide trainees with skills, knowledge, and professional insight to support AIAN health research, and the Summer Immersive Program – a situated-learning summer experience to expose trainees to community-based research in Tribal community and Tribal health settings. Both components are designed to expose and link trainees to a national mentor network and Tribal-serving health systems actively engaged in translational health research for AIAN people and communities. GEN4 will support up to 200 trainees for the biomedical research workforce in partnership with Tribal health systems serving AIAN communities using the following aims: Aim 1: Build a national learning cohort designed to foster the next generation of health researchers equipped to work in and for Tribal health, and Aim 2: Using a place-based, multi-modal curriculum, develop an immersive summer experience for trainees to gain the skills, knowledge, and mentorship for comprehensive health research across Tribal health systems. GEN4 is a groundbreaking program that immerses learning in both academic and Tribal health settings, offering innovative opportunities for undergraduate and non-degree seeking trainees to see the conduct of health research in real world communities and health settings, modeling the lived experience of community-based research and strengthening Tribal health research capacity for trainees and Tribal communities alike.