NORA Decade Review

The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) is a partnership program to stimulate innovative research and improved workplace practices. It began in 1996. In 2005, the accomplishments of NORA’s first decade (1996 – 2005) were collected and reviewed.

An evaluation of the second decade (2006 – 2015) is being conducted. This review will focus on the accomplishments of the decade and progress toward meeting goals and objectives. Data sources include existing NIOSH project data, questionnaires and public comments.

The results will be reported in 2015 and will help inform planning for the third decade of NORA, which starts in 2016.

Purpose

• Assess the investment, approach and impact of the second decade of NORA
• Collect input from different stakeholder groups as to the strengths and weaknesses of the second decade of NORA, including general strategic approach and tactical execution of the approach

Scope

The evaluation is designed to answer three main questions:

• What did we do in the second decade of NORA?
• How well did we do it?
• What was the impact?

Audience

• Funding agencies
• Stakeholder groups
• NIOSH researchers
• Policy making groups
• Other occupational safety and health organizations and agencies
• Thought leaders

Data Collection

NIOSH Project Data

NIOSH data on intramural and extramural research activities, outputs and impacts during the second decade of NORA will be analyzed.

Questionnaires

NIOSH program leaders and staff and NORA sector council members will be asked to respond to questionnaires about council and program activities, effectiveness and impacts.

Public Comment

A NIOSH docket will be open until March 24, 2015, to accept comments. NORA partners and the general public are asked to describe the most significant successes and challenges of their engagement with NIOSH during the second decade of NORA (2006 to present). You can directly access the “regulations.gov” website to comment on this issue: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=CDC-2015-0002-0001.

You can also access the “regulations.gov” comment page by following these four steps:

• Go to the regulations.gov website: www.regulations.gov.
• Search for “CDC-2015-0002”
• Click on the document name to review the request from NIOSH
• Click on “Comment Now!” to provide your narrative response.

Products

The following products from the evaluation are expected to be available in 2016:

• Final printed reports
• Electronic information for easy download and quick messaging
• Bibliometrics of the second decade of NORA
• Topic-specific fact sheets and impact stories

Timeline

• Data collection: August 2014 – April 2015
• Data analysis and report writing: May 2015 – September 2015
• Prepare final report and other communication products: October 2015 – February 2016
• Third decade will be launched on October 1, 2016

Questions or Comments?

Send to NORAreview@cdc.gov.