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key partnerships
The Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (IMNI)
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/IMNI
The close ties between SRP and IMNI arise, in part, from the ongoing research collaboration between Dr. Robert Hurt, Leader of Project 6, and Dr. Agnes Kane, Leader of Project 2. The Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (IMNI) was founded at Brown University in 2007 as an umbrella organization to support centers and collaborative research teams in targeted areas of the molecular and nanosciences. IMNI is a "polydisciplinary" venture with 60 faculty participants representing nine departments across campus. IMNI serves as a focal point for interaction with industry, government, and our affiliated hospitals. IMNI's Department of Education GAANN Training Grant supports pre-doctoral students who pursue interdisciplinary research and teaching in the applications and implications of nanotechnology.
Children's Environmental Health (CEH)
http://biomed.brown.edu/CEH/
Children's Environmental Health (CEH) is a community-oriented, research-intensive enterprise at Brown University. CEH is a recipient of a Formative Center (P20) grant, jointly funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Multi-institutional (Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital) and multi-departmental (Obstetrics & Gynecology, Community Health, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, Sociology), CEH's goal is to function as a responsive center of technical and intellectual excellence that takes an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the complex molecular, mechanistic, clinical, and societal problems associated with environmental exposures that impact fetal development.
State of Rhode Island: Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) and Department of Health (RIDOH)
Our Research Translation Core Core B has fostered and strengthened our partnerships with the RIDEM and RIDOH. Through these partnerships, we have collaborated with individuals and organizations throughout the greater Northeast, and have become informed about emerging and existing environmental challenges in Rhode Island and beyond. Training workshops with broad participation by professionals and regulators have been designed to provide information about how to successfully manage these environmental challenges.
RI Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI)
http://www.greenandhealthyhomes.org/
http://cityof.providenceri.com/mayor/mayor-taveras-signs-green-and-healthy-housing
The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) is implementing a cost-effective and integrated approach to housing interventions by combining federal and philanthropic investments in weatherization, energy efficiency, health and safety. Together with our partners at the RI Department of Health, we are helping to develop the data and evaluation component of the program to quantify the environmental and health impacts of this intervention.
ENACT: Environmental Neighborhood Awareness Committee Of Tiverton
www.enactri.org
ENACT represents the interests of 130 homeowners in the Bay Street neighborhood of North Tiverton. The neighborhood was constructed on fill contaminated with waste from a coal gasification plant, and properties throughout the neighborhood are contaminated with arsenic, cyanide, lead, mercury, and various volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. ENACT is working with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to have the soil tested, the site delineated, and to press for remediation. The Brown SRP has helped by working with state legislators to get legislation passed that will make homeowners on contaminated properties eligible for home equity loans.
EJLRI: Environmental Justice League Of Rhode Island
www.ejlri.org
The Outreach Core helped in the formation of the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI) to create a network of community-based organizations that addresses issues related to Superfund brownfields clean up, remediation, and redevelopment, and to help this network secure resources, training and scientific expertise to address community concerns about toxics.
Community Environmental College (CEC)
http://ejlri.wordpress.com/our-work/youth-programs/community-environmental-college/
The Community Environmental College is a educational program for youth, providing classes in Environmental Justice, Food Justice, and Leadership Media and the Arts.
WRWC: Woonsaquatucket River Watershed Council
www.woonasquatucket.org
One of the nation's fourteen federally-designated American Heritage Rivers, the Woonasquatucket River's watershed comprises five towns (including Providence), and includes a Superfund site and several Brownfields. Among its many projects, the WRWC is working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others on remediation to address dioxin contamination at the Centredale Manor area. WRWC also works on maintaining and promoting land preservation along the watershed, and in developing environmental materials for students. The Brown SRP Community Outreach team has researched cleanup methods implemented at forty other similar Superfund sites, and has interviewed community organizations near those sites to learn about their satisfaction with the cleanup alternatives chosen. We are also helping the Watershed Council identify other stakeholders along the river, so that they may network and make a coordinated demand for cleanup to the most stringent standards possible.
U.S. EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL)
Project Summary
Many of Brown's SRP stakeholders have been concerned by sediment contamination, and have expressed an interest in improving sediment contamination characterization techniques. Our SRP received supplemental funding through NIEHS for a collaborative research translation effort with the U.S. EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) to sample pollutants like PCBs from contaminated waters and sediments.
UMass Dartmouth - Boston University School of Public Health
Project Summary
Through an NIEHS award issued under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), our SRP is collaborating with UMass Dartmouth and the Boston University School of Public Health to study the risks of vapor intrusion.