Michigan-Ohio Occupational Research Education (MOORE) Program

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PROJECT SUMMARY The overarching goals of the proposed R25 research educational program are to support activities that complement and enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s needs for evaluating, managing and handling hazardous substances, and to advance educational opportunities in environmental and occupational health and safety and in the public health and engineering aspects of hazardous waste control. The proposed Michigan-Ohio Occupational Research Education Program (MOORE Program) will focus on the development and delivery of training and research experiences for graduate students and occupational health and safety (OHS) practitioners addressing four themes: (1) emerging technologies in exposure assessment; (2) home health care; (3) sustainability and OHS practices; and (4) ergonomics and aerosol exposure. The instruction and research experiences will engage multidisciplinary teams from the University of Michigan, University of Cincinnati, and Michigan State University with considerable experience expertise and commitment to OHS and this program. Training and research in four themes will address joint occupational and environmental stressors that can affect OHS, as well as the changing nature of the workplace. Activities in the MOORE Program will include creating a common and cross-cutting infrastructure for educational programs at partnering institutions; developing new web-based modules that address these themes; embedding these modules in existing courses and developing new courses and certificate programs for our occupational and environmental health science programs; offering these modules as continuing education (CE) courses to working professionals; and providing intensive research experiences for graduate and post-graduate students and professionals that are linked to applications in the four areas. These offerings will utilize a common rubric that incorporates evidence-based backward curriculum design, utilize the Wikipedia environment that both engages students and adds content to this well-used public resource, and employ robust external and ongoing evaluations to ensure the highest quality offerings and responsiveness to trainee and professional needs. Drawing on the strong and complementary OHS programs and outstanding resources at the three universities, this partnership will greatly expand offerings available to students at our institutions and the broader region, create new opportunities to meet research training needs in emerging areas relevant to OHS and the Superfund Program, and maximize our impact in the professional and practice communities in protecting worker health.