Building on our Success as the NOPREN Coordinating Center

University Of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary CDC’s Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network (NOPREN) aims to inform policies and practices designed to support the equitable intake of healthy, nutritious foods so that everyone has a fair chance at health. Over the prior 10 years, the Coordinating Center at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has built NOPREN into the nation’s premier platform for the collaborative translation and dissemination of nutrition and obesity policy research. We have grown network membership from >100 in 2014 to >3,000, with representatives from professional organizations, academic institutions, federal agencies, and state and local health departments; hosted >100 monthly State-of-Science webinars, with a tripling of attendance to an average of 150-200 attendees; supported triple the original number of NOPREN Work Groups, who have developed, published, and disseminated dozens of manuscripts, tools, resources, and policy briefs; and created a robust suite of professional development and networking opportunities for students and early career professionals. Our network evaluation indicates that NOPREN engagement leads to tangible products and deliverables, in addition to the less quantifiable connections that help accelerate research and evaluation and create opportunities for collaboration among researchers siloed across the country. In order to build on this success, we propose five additional years of coordination which will focus on the following Aims: (1) increasing the field’s capacity to conduct high-quality, transdisciplinary policy research that accelerates implementation of CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (DNPAO) nutrition and obesity-prevention strategies; (2) disseminating research findings to internal, external, and non-traditional, inter-disciplinary partners through varied communication strategies; and (3) enhancing coordination and engagement among public health practitioners, organizational implementers, and academic nutrition and obesity researchers. Our implementation and evaluation efforts will be guided by CDC’s Science Impact Framework. We will also conduct an implementation project aligned with the goals of NOPREN and DNPAO. This mixed- methods evaluation of implementation of the HER Nutrition Guidelines in food banks across the US will be guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. We will interview representatives at food banks with high and low success implementing the HER Guidelines to assess barriers and facilitators, use that information to create a quantitative measure assessing implementation across multiple dimensions, and then administer that tool to all Feeding America food banks.