Resource Center for Tribal Epidemiology Centers

About RC-TEC


The Resource Center for Tribal Epidemiology Centers (RC-TEC), funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), was established in July 2022 at the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health (CAIANH). The Resource Center was developed to provide training, technical assistance, and other types of support for Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) and affiliated organizations to enhance their research capacity and to secure externally sponsored funding to facilitate meeting their goals and objectives for the American Indian and Alaska Native populations they serve.

Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) were initially funded in 1996 and grew in numbers during subsequent Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorizations. Their mission is to “improve the health status of American Indian and Alaska Native people by identification and understanding of health risks and inequities, strengthening public health capacity, and assisting in disease prevention and control.” Currently, there are 12 nationally recognized TECs located throughout the United States.

Resource Center Activities


  • Administer NIMHD annual funding to TECs and affiliated organizations to enhance their research capacity and to secure externally sponsored funding to facilitate meeting their goals and objectives.
  • Provide training to TEC personnel and affiliates on designing and implementing quantitative and qualitative studies, computer software applications, and dissemination of results.
  • Provide targeted technical assistance, and other types of support, to enable TECs and affiliated organization to conduct locally relevant, scientifically meritorious studies and to disseminate the results thereof.
  • Focus on personnel training needs across all personnel levels (i.e., education, experience) with a special emphasis on early career investigators.
  • Promote collaborations among TECs, affiliated organizations, and external investigators to advance the knowledge base with respect to American Indian and Alaska Native health needs.
  • Facilitate access to additional, supplemental, non-competitive funding available through other NIH Institutes and Centers through NIMHD.

Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health

Colorado School of Public Health

CU Anschutz

Nighthorse Campbell Native Health Building

13055 East 17th Avenue

Mail Stop F800

Aurora, CO 80045


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