2026 CCaTS CHAMP Awards

Sep 17 2:20pm | Jasmine Souers | @jasminesouers

The Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS) is excited to announce the 2026 recipients of the CHAMP (Community Health Assessment and Improvement Measures Program) Research and Partnership Development Awards.

These awards support community-academic partnerships focused on addressing community health priorities. Since the program began, CHAMP has supported over 32 projects across eight award cycles. In 2026, two new projects will join this impactful program.

2026 CHAMP Research Award

Building the Evidence Base for Active Mobility Interventions: A Community-Engaged Pilot Study

Led by Abby Lohr, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Jennifer Dens Higano, M.D., this project brings together Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP), We Bike Rochester and community partners to address community-identified challenges to physical activity and transportation. The team will build on Rochester’s Adult Learn to Ride program, a community-based bicycling program that has demonstrated high participant satisfaction and increased bicycle confidence.

Through the CHAMP Research Award, community participants and bilingual cycling instructors will partner with the research team to evaluate how bicycling may affect physical activity, transportation security, and physical fitness. The project will also strengthen community capacity by supporting participants in becoming trained bilingual cycling instructors and engaging community members in co-designing the next generation of the program.

2026 CHAMP Partnership Development Award

HOME: Housing Stability through Mental Health Partnership & Lived Experience

Led by Zumbro Valley Medical Society Foundation, with project director Beth Kangas, Ph.D., and Mayo Clinic research partner Monica Taylor-Desir, M.D., the HOME project will develop a community-academic partnership focused on the interconnected challenges of behavioral health and housing instability in Olmsted County. The partnership brings together community psychiatry, housing and service partners, and The TABLE (Team of Advisors Bringing Lived Experience), whose members have lived experience of homelessness and housing precarity.

The project will identify behavioral health challenges that can make it difficult for individuals to obtain and sustain housing and collaboratively develop and implement strategies to address those challenges. Importantly, people with lived experience will serve as project leaders and co-designers, helping ensure that solutions are grounded in community priorities and experiences.

These two projects reflect the heart of the CHAMP program, bringing community members and researchers together to address locally identified health priorities through shared expertise and meaningful partnership. We look forward to following their progress and sharing what they learn as their work moves forward.