Research Grants on Improving the Use of Research Evidence

Overview

<p>This program supports research on strategies to improve the use of research evidence in ways that benefit young people ages 5-25 in the United States. We want to know what it takes to produce useful research evidence, what it takes to get research used, and what happens when research is used. We welcome letters of inquiry for studies that pursue one of these broad aims. We invite studies from a range of disciplines, fields, and methods, and we encourage investigations into various youth-serving systems, including justice, housing, child welfare, mental health, and education. Previous studies have drawn on conceptual and empirical work from political science, communication science, knowledge mobilization, implementation science, and organizational psychology, among other areas. In addition to studies that build and test theory, we are interested in measurement studies to develop the tools necessary to capture changes in the nature and degree of research use. Finally, we welcome critical perspectives that inform studies’ research questions, methods, and interpretation of findings.</p> <p>We are particularly interested in research on ways to improve the use of research evidence by state and local policymakers, mid-level managers, and intermediaries. These decision-makers play important roles in deciding which programs, practices, and tools to adopt; deliberating ways to improve existing services; shaping the conditions for implementation; and making resource allocation decisions.</p> <p><strong>We welcome studies that pursue one of three aims:</strong></p> <p><strong>1.</strong> Building, identifying, or testing ways to improve the use of existing research evidence. This may include:</p> <ul> <li>Studies of strategies, mechanisms, or conditions that foster more routine and constructive uses of existing research evidence by decision-makers.</li> <li>Studies that test the effects of deliberate efforts to improve routine and beneficial uses of research in decision-making.</li> </ul> <p><strong>2</strong>. Building, identifying, or testing ways to facilitate the production of new research evidence that responds to decision-makers’ needs. This may include:</p> <ul> <li>Studies to identify strategies for altering the incentive structures or organizational cultures of research institutions so that researchers conduct more practice- or policy-relevant studies and are rewarded for producing research that decision-makers consider useful.</li> <li>Studies to identify the relationships and organizational structures that lead to the prioritization of decision-makers’ needs in developing research agendas.</li> <li>Studies that examine ways to optimize organized collaborations among researchers, decision-makers, intermediaries, and other stakeholders to benefit youth.</li> </ul> <p><strong>3.</strong> Testing whether and under what conditions using research evidence improves decision-making and youth outcomes. This may include:</p> <ul> <li>Studies that examine the impact of research use on youth outcomes and the conditions under which using research evidence improves outcomes.</li> <li>Studies to identify and test other conditions under which using research evidence improves youth outcomes.</li> </ul>