MIssion

• Create a world renowned group of collaborative partners that will attract public and private organizations focused on environmental health to locate in the Research Triangle region.
• Orchestrate yearly Environmental Health Summits to be held in the region, bringing together environmental and public health leaders to discuss emerging issues facing environmental health and to plan a strategy for innovatively addressing these challenges.
• Plan other projects that will augment environmental health activities in the region, such as serving as a clearinghouse and promoter of seminars, workshops and conferences occurring at various public and private organizations. Assist organizations in achieving their mission by facilitating meetings and brainstorming sessions and by enhancing collaborative ventures.
• Sustain a funding base with fund-raising efforts driven by the Executive Committee.
• Establish a core staff to support activities of the Collaborative.
• Solicit and welcome as members, all individuals and organizations that share and adopt the Collaborative’s mission and vision.

For the federal government, the Collaborative could:

• Assist in facilitating agency/institute goals (e.g., organize meetings, attract new scientists, serve as a clearinghouse for activities and events in the area).
• Promote collaborations between government and non-government stakeholders.
• Serve as a convener of national and international experts on topics of interest.
• Provide expert advice and review.
• Address multiple agency missions at one time, in one setting.
• Provide a neutral forum for discussions on science and policy.
• Assure visibility for key environmental programs.
• Advance influence to stakeholders outside of the federal government.

For state and local government, the Collaborative could:

• Afford local government a voice in state- and region-wide environmental issues.
• Promote visibility at the state, regional and national levels from key officials and their issues.
• Promote the Research Triangle area as a desirable scientific, research and business destination.
• Foster economic development that expands the tax base, resulting in new business start-ups, job creation, retail expansion, more revenue for public schools and many other benefits.

For academic institutions, the Collaborative could:

• Facilitate interaction between academia and government, non-profit and foundations and private organizations in a collegial environment.
• Attract environmental research talent to the area.
• Facilitate collaborative efforts in grant development to generate new research programs.
• Plan internships or summer programs to provide students with an opportunity to work in environmental health research at government organizations or private/non-profit groups.
  Ignite professional development opportunities for both faculty and staff.
• Excite an interest in environmental research, issues and technologies in the local public schools, community colleges and universities that benefits the larger academic community.
• Establish a framework and a forum within which to incubate non-partisan environmental health solutions.

For associations, foundations and non-profit organizations, the Collaborative could:

• Create an inter-organizational “think tank” of environmental, health and policy thought leaders.
• Generate ideas that lead to projects with measurable outcomes that area replicable and worthy of funding.
• Expand the pool of potential donor organizations for myriad non-profit and foundation missions and agendas.
• Attract media coverage to environmental health issues.

For private companies, the Collaborative could:

• Support the convergence of government, academia and non-profit interests, generating an attractive economic environment for business growth.
• Exploit and leverage the confluence of environmental research talent to assure business growth in the environmental sciences.
• Focus media attention on the issues and the area, enabling private industry to attract and recruit top talent.
• Provide advice on environmental health issues and related policy concerns by bringing together all interested stakeholders.