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Over the next 26 years, the children of Valencia County will become part of the greatest pool of scientific teachers ever assembled.

As part of a study by the University of New Mexico, 1,000 Valencia County children will inform researchers about a variety of aspects of child development so vast that it took a 650-page research plan to describe them all.

The study, which has been funded so far in New Mexico for $12.3 million over five years, is part of a National Institutes of Health effort to look at childhood development in 100,000 children across the United States.

The goal is to create the richest database of child development information ever assembled, said Robert Annett, the professor of pediatrics at UNM who will direct the New Mexico part of the study.

"The focus is to understand the unique contributions of environment on child development," Annett said. "That's everything from soil, water, air to home environment, genetic influences and other factors."

Researchers will spend the next 21 months developing a plan to start the study in Valencia County.

They will meet with community leaders and start outreach and education in hopes of finding 1,000 pregnant mothers willing to participate, said Beth Tigges, interim associate dean for research at the UNM College of Nursing and a co-investigator.

"We're going to create a real partnership with the leaders of Valencia County, the schools, the clinics," Tigges said. "We'll also hire about 15 research nurses, and hopefully most of them will come from Valencia County."

The birth rate in Valencia County is about 1,000 newborns each year. The plan is to recruit 250 mothers each year for four years into the study, then follow the children until they reach age 21, Annett said.

Children will get 15 visits by the researchers over the study period.

When complete, NIH hopes to use the data gathered in New Mexico and other states to gain a richer understanding of what causes diseases like asthma, obesity, diabetes, behavioral health problems and injuries.

Another goal is to see what factors contribute to healthy kids, Annett said.

Valencia County is the only New Mexico county participating in the study. That's an honor, Tigges said, because some states had no participating counties at all.

"I think it's pretty important for us to have New Mexico and our population represented in any national data set," Tigges said.

NIH was interested in Valencia County because it's a rural area with a lot of cultural diversity, Annett said.

And while the study will span more than two decades, he's still eager to get started and to work with people in the county, Annett said.

"This is a real privilege for the university to work with the people in Valencia County," Annett said. "It's a chance for New Mexico to make a big contribution to national heath outcomes."