Build and Broaden: Growing Capacity in Southeast Alaska Indigenous Genomic Research Partnerships

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This project will support a regional approach to building capacity for genomic research partnerships within the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian communities of southeast Alaska. A workshop series will introduce a working group of southeast Alaska Indigenous community representatives to basic genomic research methods through hands-on laboratory exercises. The working group will develop culturally-responsive genomic research policy recommendations and resources that will serve as a potential model for other Indigenous communities, institutions, and their collaborators. In collaboration with Sealaska Heritage Institute’s STEAM program, insight from the working-group will also be applied to developing a place-based, culturally-responsive genomic laboratory teaching module for Alaska Native middle school students. This pedagogical model will be of interest to other STEM educators serving Indigenous student populations. The workshop activities will strengthen the existing genomic research partnerships between the investigators and further support the training and professionalization of an Alaska Native postdoctoral fellow (PI Bader).The proposed workshop series will build capacity in southeast Alaska Native communities and the Sealaska Heritage Institute to engage in equitable genomic research partnerships, especially with non-Indigenous collaborators. Workshop activities will produce a genomic research toolkit of resources for Indigenous communities and their collaborators. This toolkit will include a genomic research policy recommendation that will hold genomic researchers accountable to community core cultural values, a cultural competency training module for researchers who wish to engage in genomic research with Indigenous communities in southeast Alaska, and examples of documents like MOU/MOA and informed consent which will highlight key points to be discussed between communities and their research partners. Consortium publications will recommend approaches to critical elements of genomic research (for example, sample management and data sharing) informed by the core values of southeast Alaska Native communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.