Global Lessons, Local Impact: Development of the CDC's Global and Territorial Health Research Network – A Thematic Network of the Prevention Research Centers Program

Successful strategies to prevent and control chronic disease can arise anywhere in the world. U.S. chronic disease prevention strategies/practices can be translated elsewhere, and strategies/practices from resource-challenged parts of the world can inform prevention strategies in the U.S. and its affiliated communities.

CDC, through its Prevention Research Centers (PRC) Program, established a Thematic Network, the Global and Territorial Health Research Network (“Global Network”) to conduct, share, and translate innovative chronic disease prevention research in low-resource settings.  Aims of the Global Network are: building partnerships, identifying policies and interventions; developing joint research agendas driven by needs of diverse communities and the U.S. Territories/Affiliated Nations; and assisting with translation of global research.

CDC supports two Collaborating Centers, Yale-Griffin PRC and University of Illinois at Chicago PRC, and one Coordinating Center, University of Rochester PRC and engages Universities of Hawaii and Puerto Rico as implementing partners.

Core activities of the Network are to create a Global-Local Exchange website promoting partnerships among these and other groups around the world and network-sponsored projects to generate new knowledge and translate prevention strategies among partners. The work is facilitated by a shared governance model, appropriate supportive technology, and shared values of community engagement within a diverse ecological context.

The Global Network enables shared knowledge exchange between local and global areas of the world to promote effective strategies for chronic disease prevention.  The Global Network may serve as a coordinating and implementation model for multi-institutional collaborative prevention and research endeavors with a global focus.