Building Capacity for Disaster Research Response (DR2): Lessons, Tools and Resources from the University of Washington - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences DR2 Workshop

Background and Aim: Environmental health research in the aftermath of disaster is necessary to learn about short- and long-term health consequences, as well as response and recovery strategy effectiveness. However,several relational, logistical and administrative barriers facing disaster research necessitate intentional and collaborative planning among researchers, practitioners, funding agencies, and communities. In response, the University of Washington (UW) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) co-designed a "Disaster Research Response” (DR2) workshop to improve preparedness to conduct rapid environmental and health-related research that concurrently advances science and is responsive to community information needs. This presentation provides an overview of the DR2 workshop planning process and resultant tools, resources, and lessons learned. Methods: Over 50 NIEHS staff, UW faculty, students, and staff from environmental and occupational health, nursing, medicine, policy, planning, and engineering, and public health, healthcare and emergency management practitioners worked together for 2.5 years to build relationships, engage community members to identify research priorities, including through listening sessions and co-development of research protocols/plans, plan for ethical review of time sensitive research, and identify workforce development needs. Results: The workshop resulted in the development of several sharable tools and resources, including a Concept of Operations Plan; protocols for and highlights of community listening sessions, approaches to engaging communities in pre-disaster research planning, and research plans and protocols for conducting pre- and post-disaster data collection; institutional review board training; a gap analysis of disaster and health graduate training in the U.S.; and identification of lessons learned for communities embarking on similar efforts. Conclusions: As climate change increases the global risk of disasters, processes, tools, resources, and lessons from the UW-NIEHS DR2 workshop can inform other communities seeking to build capacity to conduct environmental health disaster research. Key words: Disaster research, climate change, community-engagement