As the land grant University of Rhode Island, URI has a long history of community engagement and outreach. Since 1914, URI Cooperative Extension has been providing research-based knowledge to help Rhode Island communities protect water resources, improve land stewardship, foster energy literacy, promote healthy lifestyles, and strengthen food and agricultural systems.

The RI-INBRE program committed to contributing to this critical mission by previously supporting pilot projects (PP) focused on Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) in environmental health sciences. Previous PP-CEO projects included citizen participation in environmental monitoring or the development of public education activities focused on environmental health sciences. Awards were issued for a one-year period and to  tenure-track faculty.