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Alaska INBRE Goals and Aims

This summary of INBRE’s goals and mission was written for a renewal request for Alaska’s Institutional Development Award Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (AK INBRE 5). Alaska INBRE 5 was awarded in August 2025.

INBRE’s overall goals are:

1) continue to increase capacity in Alaska for biomedical and behavioral health research and

2) grow the pipeline of students, faculty and investigators in Alaska seeking biomedical research careers. One Health, the continuing research theme from AK INBRE 3 and AK INBRE 4, recognizes the developing expertise and interconnections among network investigators in the biomedical, animal, and environmental sciences.

AK INBRE 5 will continue to use its broad One Health theme to include the study of health strengths in the people of Alaska as opportunities to build interdisciplinary and clinical and translational research collaborations that address Alaska’s and our nation’s needs to promote the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.

Key to these goals is having established as fully participating institutional partners in AK INBRE 4 the research departments within the Tribal Health Organizations (THO), the Southcentral Foundation (SCF) and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC).

For AK INBRE 5, we propose to further expand by adding Iḷisaġvik College to our network, which also includes of the primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), and the research-intensive lead institution, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).

Since 2001, the INBRE program has been vital to creating and enhancing the biomedical education, training, and research network in the developing state of Alaska.

INBRE 5 AIMS

For AK INBRE 5, we propose six specific aims, including two new research cores that will expand resources and opportunities to students and researchers within our network and for participants of the Regional Alliance of INBRE Networks (RAIN).
Specific Aim 1. Provide Administrative Core (AC) support and coordination of the Student Research Program (SRP) and all other programs within the AK INBRE 5 network, its network-wide annual research conferences and summits, Executive, Steering, and External Advisory Committees (EC, SC and EAC), and tracking, reporting, outreach, and evaluation. The AC will facilitate the overall coordination and sharing of resources among all IDeA and other NIH and university programs in Alaska with similar goals
Specific Aim 2. Build on the capacity, expertise, and interdisciplinary research collaborations within the expanded statewide network of AK INBRE 5 through the Developmental Research Project Program (DRPP) that funds Research Projects (RPs) and Pilot Projects (PPs) as competitive awards to investigators that include support for their mentors and incentivize involvement of undergraduate students in research.
Specific Aim 3. Develop the Data Science Core (DSC) within the AK INBRE 5 program to implement research, education, training, and services in tools, infrastructure, analysis, and stewardship in data science and data engineering for students and investigators.
Specific Aim 4. Augment the network through a new Research Analytics Core (RAC) to provide for distributed services and research support in genomics, chemistry, biochemistry, and innovative use of stable isotope analysis in the development of biomarkers in biomedical research.
Specific Aim 5. Provide resources and training for investigators, students, and community stakeholders through a new Community Based Participatory Research Core (CBPR Core) for training and aiding students and investigators in responsibilities and best practices for engaging the breadth of Alaska communities in research.
Specific Aim 6. Renovate space through an Alteration and Renovation Project (A&R) to establish a modern suite for conducting research in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Alaska Southeast, in Juneau, Alaska.
Achieving these specific aims will enhance biomedical and behavioral research capacity across the translational spectrum, grow transdisciplinary research by connecting human, animal, and environmental health, create resources, research, and education in data science, address long-standing research needs in a geographically disparate and dispersed population, and help build a diverse biomedical workforce in the unique state of Alaska.
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