Background: Complex problems do not respect academic disciplinary boundaries. Environmental health research is complex and often moves beyond these boundaries, integrating diverse knowledge resources to solve such challenges. Here we describe an evolving paradigm for interweaving approaches that integrates widely diverse resources outside of traditional academic environments in full partnerships of mutual respect and understanding. We demonstrate that scientists, social scientists, and engineers can work with government agencies, industry, and communities to interweave their expertise into metaphorical knowledge fabrics to share understanding, resources, and enthusiasm.

Objective: Our goal is to acknowledge and validate how interweaving research approaches can contribute to research-driven, solution-oriented problem solving in environmental health, and to inspire more members of the environmental health community to consider this approach.

Discussion: The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program (SRP), as mandated by Congress, has evolved to become a program that reaches across a wide range of knowledge resources. SRP fosters interweaving multiple knowledge resources to develop innovative multidirectional partnerships for research and training. Here we describe examples of how motivation, ideas, knowledge, and expertise from different people, institutions, and agencies can integrate to tackle challenges that can be as complex as the resources they bring to bear on it.

Conclusions: By providing structure for interweaving science with its stakeholders, we are better able to leverage resources, increase potential for innovation, and proactively ensure a more fully developed spectrum of beneficial outcomes of research investments.

Citation: Anderson BE, Naujokas MF, Suk WA. 2015. Interweaving knowledge resources to address complex environmental health challenges. Environ Health Perspect 123:1095–1099; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409525

Address correspondence to M.F. Naujokas, MDB, Inc., 2525 Meridian Corporate Center, Suite 50, Durham, North Carolina 27713 USA. Telephone: (919) 794-4700. E-mail: mnaujokas@michaeldbaker.com

We acknowledge the generosity of the following individuals who gave their time to provide us with information about their programs and review the manuscript: P. Brown, J. Gil-Loaiza, K. Gray, C. Hammond, A. Harding, B. Harper, M. Heacock, A. Hoover, M. Maddaloni, R. Maier, C. Olivares, M. Scammel, C. Spear, M. Stovern, and S. Wilkinson.

This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). M.F.N. is employed by MDB, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.

The views, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent views or policies of NIH, NIEHS, or the U.S. government, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government.

The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Received: 8 December 2014 Accepted: 21 April 2015 Advance Publication: 24 April 2015 Final Publication: 1 November 2015

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