Mining Program Impact

NIOSH is strongly committed to program evaluation as a way to maximize its contributions to improved occupational safety and health. Regular review of program activities, outputs, and outcomes is essential to demonstrating program performance. The Mining Program conducts reviews and shares program impact in a variety of ways.

The Mining Program achieves safety and health impact by providing solutions to its stakeholders. These include tools and products along with a range of publications.

Program Performance One-pager

Program Performance One-Pagers (PPOPs) are a snapshot of NIOSH programs’ priorities, strategies used to make progress towards priorities, recent accomplishments, and upcoming work.

Mining Program Performance One-Pager

Program Reviews

NIOSH understands that external expert review is one of the most valid and accepted methods of evaluating research programs. Consequently, NIOSH requested that the National Academies evaluate NIOSH research programs with respect to their impact, relevance, and future directions. The National Academies was asked to evaluate what NIOSH research programs are producing and to determine the extent to which NIOSH research is responsible for changes in the workplace that reduce the risk of occupational injuries, illnesses, and deaths. More information is available at the National Academies Evaluation of NIOSH Research Programs page.

The NIOSH Mining Program review by the National Academies was conducted during 2005-2008. The review focused on the research contributions the program had made to mining safety and health. At the conclusion of its review, the National Academies’ committee assigned a score of 4 (out of 5) for relevance on the basis that the research was judged to be high priority in nature and that the program but that there were significant opportunities remaining to improve the transfer of its research findings to practice in the within the mining industry. The committee assigned the program a score of 4 for impact on the basis that NIOSH had made meaningful contributions to mining health and safety as measured by either end outcomes or well-accepted intermediate outcomes.

The Mining Program is also monitored by the Mine Safety and Health Research Advisory Committee (MSHRAC). During 2012-2016, MSHRAC assessed the Program's success in addressing eighteen recommendations from the National Academies' review. For each recommendation, MSHRAC rated the Program's achievement (the degree to which the program achieved a full response to the recommendation), sustainability (developed inputs needed to maintain effectiveness), and impact (contributed to advanced functioning, new partnerships, or improvements in safety and health). On every scale, MSHRAC scored the Program's responses to the Academies' recommendations the top rating of 5 out of 5.