Outreach and Engagement Efforts in Research on Down Syndrome: An NIH INCLUDE Working Group Consensus Statement

The National Institutes of Health formulated the Outreach and Engagement Working Group in Fall of 2019 to support the objectives of the INCLUDE Project (INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE). This Working Group consisted of a multi-disciplinary team of stakeholders in research on Down syndrome that met to discuss best practices for outreach and engagement to Down syndrome communities, with an emphasis on representation and diversity. This review and consensus paper describes the importance of increasing representation in DS research for future cohort building and summarizes the priority issues identified by the Working Group members. An overview of Working Group activities is then presented, followed by consensus recommendations and a discussion of future opportunities and challenges.