Overview
The research endeavor benefits from thoughtful management practices specifically tailored to enhance relevance, importance, scientific quality, coordination, participation, flexibility, productivity, and communication. This plan already has addressed such elements of management improvement as using appropriate modes of participatory research, expanding dissemination and utilization of research, and enhancing capacity-building, which are all part of NIDRR’s program-matic efforts. This section of the plan focuses on several additional management strategies that NIDRR will use to enhance its programs.
Management Strategies
NIDRR will employ a number of management strategies in support of its five-year agenda. Among these are an emphasis on Centers of Excellence; enhanced coordination of federal disability research; improved program evaluation and performance review; enhanced peer review process; increased collaboration, including interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research; creative funding mechanisms; international research; innovative strategies to manage intellectual property; expanded use of information technology; the reallocation of resources; and continuous participatory planning.
Centers of Excellence
NIDRR is committed to regenerating a network of Centers of Excellence in disability and rehabilitation research. The term Center of Excellence is used widely in research and medical fields and may indicate either a judgment or an aspiration. NIDRR believes the disability constituency deserves Centers of Excellence and is applying standards and procedures to ensure that all research, dissemination, technical assistance, and model service centers will develop and adhere to standards for Centers of Excellence. In 1988, an independent evaluation of the RRTCs developed a set of standards for an RRTC Center of Excellence. These standards included items of research administration, balance of activities, synergy, accountability, coordinated programs, and capacity to improve rehabilitation.
Recognizing that Centers of Excellence result from a partnership between NIDRR and its grantees, NIDRR has revisited the concept of Center of Excellence in its new program review process, described later in this section. The program review process has led to the further identification and development of the criteria needed to set up and operate Centers of Excellence. Essential criteria for excellence are described below.
Excellence in Administration:
- Support from an appropriate host institution
- Appropriate process for research management and quality control
- Ability to leverage resources and attract funding from other sources
- Involvement of multiple disciplines
- Outcomes-oriented evaluation
- Protection of human subjects
Excellence in Scientific Research:
- Expertise in and contribution to state-of-the-art research
- Application of appropriate and rigorous scientific methods, whether quantitative or qualitative
- Advancement of theory and knowledge base in the field
- Expansion of research tools and methods
- Professional recognition and publication
- Outstanding investigators
Excellence in Relevance and Productivity:
- Responsiveness to priority
- Utility to consumers
- Development of knowledge to improve rehabilitation
- Systematic dissemination of knowledge in relevant and accessible formats
- Involvement of individuals with disabilities in all phases of the research process
Excellence in Capacity-Building:
- Provision of advanced research training for staff, including persons with disabilities and minorities
- Provision of training to service providers on using results of research efforts
- Provision of training to consumers in the uses of research
- Infusion of disability knowledge into other research areas
NIDRR will continue to refine the concept of Centers of Excellence through ongoing dialogue with its Centers and other science organizations, and will adapt the concept for RERCs, model systems, and other major NIDRR programs.
Enhancing Coordination of Federal Disability Research
Congress recognized the importance of coordination among the range of agencies in the area of disability research by establishing, in Sec. 203 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, an Interagency Committee on Disability Research (ICDR), to be chaired by the director of NIDRR.
The statute lists the required membership in the ICDR—the 11 federal agency senior officers—and charges the committee to identify and seek to coordinate all federal plans and projects in disability research, after receiving input from disabled individuals. The ICDR, which has 35 agencies as invited participants, has adopted by consensus a set of objectives and some specific operating procedures. The ICDR objectives are:
The ICDR objectives are:
- To avoid duplication of efforts in disability research;
- To identify gaps in research;
- To identify opportunities for research collaboration;
- To develop mechanisms for and facilitation of disability research collaboration;
- To promote synergy through combined resources;
- To share information and research findings in order to build a more systematic and cohesive Federal effort;
- To comprise an identifiable entity that can disperse information to consumers, the private sector, policy-makers, and the public about government-wide activities; and
- To assist in developing a responsive and relevant federal infrastructure for disability research, by reporting to the Congress and the president, federal agencies, and the public.
Coordination of related activities in disparate public programs is an ongoing challenge. The scope of disability suggests that many diverse agencies will be involved in providing services and conducting research on relevant issues. This involvement is both inevitable and desirable. Disability is at least a peripheral concern for many agencies whose central missions lie elsewhere—for example, the Departments of the Interior, Justice, and Transportation; the Federal Communications Commission; and the Federal Aviation Administration. Disability is closer to the core, but still not the primary mission of agencies such as Social Security Administration, Health Care Financing Administration, and the Administration on Aging. This dispersion of resources and authorities may benefit disabled people by ensuring that their concerns are recognized and dealt with by a wide array of mainstream agencies. Diverse constituencies also benefit from multiple avenues of access to research funding, policy-making, and services.
Potential benefits of effective coordination of these diverse agencies include opportunities to address a common problem with a critical mass of resources; avoid unintended and wasteful duplication; exchange information in a system that increases all parties’ awareness of issues; support complementary and synergistic research; leverage resources or provide joint funding of research; and develop a level of informed policy-making and leadership for the field.
The ICDR can play several roles while coordinating activities in disability research. The ICDR can educate federal agencies and others about disability issues; take the lead in modeling accessibility; advance important concepts such as universal design or the new paradigm of disability; and promote achievement of the goals of the ADA. The ICDR focuses efforts on gathering information about disability research and making it available to a wide range of interested agencies.
The ICDR will focus on issues that concern the missions of many agencies in cooperating to build collaborations. Disability statistics and capacity-building in disability research are examples of two issues to be addressed by the ICDR in the next five years. All ICDR agencies and other constituents need disability statistics in their planning, policy-making, resource allocation, and progress evaluations. Most of these agencies also have responsibility for collecting statistics about disability or, at least, collecting program data about disabled participants. The ICDR will focus on improving the relevance of data collection efforts to the new paradigm of disability, the emerging universe of disability, the goals of the ADA, and NIDRR’s goals of increased independence, productivity, and inclusion.
Similarly, each agency that supports disability research has a stake in ensuring the existence of a cadre of highly qualified researchers to investigate issues related to medical and vocational rehabilitation, health care, societal supports, employment, accessible environments and technology, and civil rights. The ICDR can leverage the investment of federal dollars in training through cooperative strategic planning and coordinated program implementation, such as shared funding support of various project components.
The ICDR has adopted strategies that will support individual agencies in achieving their goals. The first major strategy is to maintain effective subcommittees in critical areas. The second strategy is to increase the flow of information to all participating agencies. The third strategy is to develop collaborative research and training agendas.
The ICDR has three subcommittees: the ICDR Medical Rehabilitation Research Subcommittee (co-chaired with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NCMRR), the ICDR Technology Subcommittee (co-chaired with the National Science Foundation), and the long-standing Interagency Subcommittee on Disability Statistics (co-chaired with the National Center for Health Statistics).
Each ICDR subcommittee plans and directs the development of an informational database of federal (and other) research in the pertinent area. This may be a compendium of projects or products or an electronic database that can be updated and accessed. For example, the ICDR Technology Subcommittee sponsored the preparation of the Compendium of Federal Technology that Benefits People with Disabilities (1998). This compendium contains abstracts of research projects, other technology activities, and technology transfer activities of member agencies––all available on the World Wide Web.
Participation by ICDR Committee and subcommittee members in critical activities of other agencies is a major step toward increasing awareness and collaboration in the field. NIDRR has invited many representatives of the other agencies to participate in peer review panels, long-range planning, priority development, and its new process of NIDRR program reviews that assess the work of NIDRR centers. Jointly developed priorities and shared funding of projects have resulted from these processes. For the future, the ICDR will continue to meet quarterly, hold annual public hearings, provide administrative support for the three subcommittees, and provide an annual report to the president and the Congress.
Program Evaluation and Performance Review
In the past year, NIDRR has begun a process of intensive review for all RRTCs and RERCs during their funding cycles. It has also developed a set of measures in accordance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) that it will implement to link program outcomes to agency performance standards. NIDRR program reviews take the form of reverse site visits in which center personnel present research and training outcomes in sessions attended by NIDRR senior staff, staff of related federal agencies, other researchers, consumers with disabilities, service providers, private sector representatives such as employers or manufacturers, and information brokers. These sessions allow for intensive examination, discussion, feedback, and assessment of each center using the Center of Excellence framework.
In the future, NIDRR will expand its program reviews to other NIDRR programs (Model Systems, Disability Business and Technical Assistance Centers, and Dissemination Projects) and will conduct reviews at least twice in a center’s performance period. There will be a formative review early in the funding cycle to examine methodology, create linkages to other entities, and develop specific performance measures and outcomes data requirements. A summative review session will be completed near the end of the grant cycle to assess outcomes and implications for future research.
Program review reports will provide input into assessing how well NIDRR is meeting the objectives and indicators set forth in its GPRA plan. NIDRR, like other federal research agencies, will measure research performance and outcomes in the GPRA context. NIDRR has participated in the Research Roundtable, a cooperative effort of many federal research agencies to develop a coherent strategy for applying GPRA to research. NIDRR has developed a two-part performance measurement strategy, based on approaches discussed at the roundtable. The strategy includes both metric measures of productivity (e.g., the number of refereed publications, citations in the literature, people trained) and qualitative narratives which evaluate the scientific excellence, relevance, and dissemination of a project or a center’s activities. Research is a lengthy and sometimes serendipitous process; it is impossible to predict what even the most productive research will achieve by any given time. Furthermore, a failed hypothesis can be a project success. At the same time, NIDRR and other federal research agencies share the concerns of Congress and the administration that high standards of program performance and accountability for outcomes must be applied to agency-sponsored activities.
Enhancing Peer Review
NIDRR is implementing a project to redesign and improve important features of its peer review process to provide more continuity of evaluations and improved feedback to applicants. These improvements will include standing panels for some competitions, more useful feedback to applicants, more training for members of peer review panels, a process to identify and handle repeat applications, clarifications of funding criteria and processes, and regularly scheduled annual competitions.
Creative Funding Mechanisms
Four goals of NIDRR’s management reform are to stimulate more collaborative research, to support some significant longitudinal research without diminishing competition in the program, to increase the frequency of multidisciplinary research, and to provide grantees with the flexibility to make rapid responses to new scientific and technological developments while maintaining program accountability. Periodic competition ensures the vitality of the program and its openness to new ideas. NIDRR will develop marketing strategies and capacity-building that will expand participation in disability research by leading scientists and innovators, individuals with disabilities, and those from diverse backgrounds.
Currently, collaborative research is implemented in the form of shared protocols and common databases, or in the more diffuse form of subcontracting for discrete parts of a whole. While subcontracting for outside expertise is often convenient, closer working partnerships are to be encouraged. Grantees find the current mechanisms for collecting common data to be administratively and fiscally cumbersome. NIDRR will explore other strategies to promote collaboration, including earmarking funds specifically for collaborative research projects, authorizing grantees to reserve a portion of their centers’ funds to support collaborative efforts, and creating coordinating centers in some subject areas.
Disability is a complex, dynamic, and long-term phenomenon. Understanding the course of disablement, rehabilitation, and adaptation frequently requires collection of data over extended time periods. Within the general 60-month limit on grant periods, NIDRR will look for ways to support longitudinal studies in those instances of critical importance. Two mechanisms may be used. NIDRR may create administrative exceptions or create managerial consortia that can transfer the research effort beyond five years. The latter approach might be achieved through the contract mechanism in which the government has clear ownership of all products.
While single-discipline research is important, implementing the new paradigm of disability in research will demand the simultaneous and synergistic attention of many disciplines. In most fields, there is little academic or practical incentive for interdisciplinary research. Indeed, interdisciplinary research tends to become “non-disciplinary” (i.e., nonscientific) research if the underlying theories, assumptions, techniques, and analytical methods are not clearly specified and if the relation to the theoretical and methodological base of each involved discipline is not clearly stated. NIDRR will promote inter-disciplinary research, if appropriate, through program requirements, selection criteria, and new training approaches.
Knowledge develops rapidly in some fields, and certain shifts or breakthroughs in medicine, technology, or public policy can present opportunities for improvement in the lives of people with disabilities if these changes are addressed immediately. Conversely, some emerging technologies may present barriers to people with disabilities if they are not addressed rapidly. For example, an employed person with a disability may no longer be able to perform a computer job, if new technologies are inaccessible. Thus, NIDRR is developing a systematic process for grantees to direct resources to capitalize on these unforeseen opportunities while maintaining accountability and productivity.
International Research
Background. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, (Sec 204 (b)(6)), states that the director of NIDRR is authorized to
conduct...a program for international rehabilitation research, demonstration, and training for the purpose of developing new knowledge and methods in the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities in the United States, cooperating with and assisting in developing and sharing information found useful in other nations in the rehabilitation of the individuals with disabilities and initiating a program to exchange experts and technical assistance in the field of rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities with other nations as a means of increasing the level of skill of rehabilitation personnel.
NIDRR’s international activities are linked to (1) improving the skills of rehabilitation personnel in America through international data,
(2) generating international research, which provides needed data,
(3) seeking international collaborations for the development of assistive technology, and
(4) strengthening disability leadership globally.
NIDRR has carried out its international authority through a variety of activities, including research projects; exchanges and training of scientists, engineers, and other appropriate personnel; exchanges of scientific and technological information; conferences; the support of databases; and other avenues. Examples of these activities include (1) funding collaborative research centers in India through the United States-India Fund, (2) sponsoring information exchange through support for the World Wide Web Initiative with the National Science Foundation, (3) supporting exchange of disability and rehabilitation experts in issues affecting women with disabilities, and (4) conducting policy studies and forums in areas such as international standards, technology, and special education for the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development.
Future Plans. The emergence of a true global economy dictates a new role in international activities to promote the well-being of people with disabilities through access to jobs, better technology, and social supports. In addition, the U.S. disability research community desires to share the new disability paradigm internationally. To meet these concerns, NIDRR has established the following priorities:
International Standards. NIDRR will help develop international standards in assistive technology, which will be recognized and debated by regulatory agencies or consortia worldwide. The adoption of these standards will greatly facilitate research exchange and assist consumers in finding appropriate, high-quality products such as wheelchairs and digital telephones.
Joint Research. International collaborative research and development efforts––particularly in assistive technology, universal design, employment, independent living, wellness, and Participatory Action Research––could lead to important discoveries. NIDRR will seek international partners for research projects of mutual benefit. Both partners will share their expertise and project expenses.
Conferencing and Exchange. One of the greatest benefits of an international effort is the effective exchange of information and expertise. NIDRR will create an integrated range of activities to promote the new paradigm in concept and in methodology. International conferences, exchange scholars, and capacity-building will encourage personal contact, hands-on participation in data and research methodology, and practical applications of research results.
Database Expansion. Contemporary technology permits more effective use of the many databases in the international arena that can provide help and resources to both researchers and consumers in the United States. NIDRR desires to be a catalyst in linking relevant databases globally so that the universe of information is available to any researcher or consumer anywhere on the planet. NIDRR-sponsored information systems will be the "gateway'' to international information gathering.
Access to Information Technology and Telecommunications. The growing significance of telecommunications and information technology on a global basis has the potential to enable individuals with disabilities to interact with their environments through employment, communication, and participation in the community. NIDRR will continue efforts to ensure the availability and accessibility of worldwide information technology to people with disabilities.
Management of Intellectual Property
New technologies, especially electronic information media, are stimulating disputes about the ownership of knowledge. This is particularly complicated when the government is financing the development of instruments, databases, or devices. The general principle of grantee right to patent or copyright products, with government right of free use, can be complex to administer. NIDRR will work cooperatively with other federal agencies and grantees to discuss intellectual property guidelines that protect taxpayers’ interests in having broad access to knowledge developed with public funds, and yet protect the intellectual property rights of scientists and inventors.
Enhanced Use of Information Technology
NIDRR plans to continue using information technology aggressively to facilitate many aspects of its future activities. Activities include increased and more efficient sharing of research results and data, encouraging more collaborative projects and using common protocols and databases more often. To increase com-munication with and among grantees, NIDRR will use various communications strategies, including posting information on NIDRR and its grantees on Web sites. NIDRR’s accessible Web site, with hypertext links to grantee Web sites, already provides considerable information about NIDRR grantees.
In addition, NIDRR is developing a program database that will provide NIDRR and others with up-to-date information about NIDRR grantees and research findings. This program database will allow analyses of program characteristics, which will result in more efficient management and evaluation of individual projects and the entire NIDRR program. NIDRR also will create linkages for sharing information among centers and projects. These will include bulletin boards, list-servs, and print newsletters. Additionally, NIDRR will continue to sponsor the effective use of teleconferencing, video-conferencing, and emerging telecommunications methods.
Allocation of Resources
The effective allocation of resources is required to achieve NIDRR goals. NIDRR intends to allocate increased resources in four particular areas related to the objectives of its five-year plan. These resources will:
- support the Centers of Excellence, concentrating on large-scale problems;
- support investigator-initiated research projects that use the best ideas emerging from the field;
- expand capacity-building activities, including training researchers with disabilities; and
- develop funding opportunities for collaborative projects.
NIDRR’s RRTC program will restructure from a format of many small centers, which handle a limited scope of work, to more substantial centers. The new centers will have the capacity and flexibility to address emerging problems by working across disciplines and disabilities. The change––a complex and time-consuming effort––will involve redirecting some existing resources while protecting valuable research capacity. To continue the success of NIDRR’s field-initiated research project program, NIDRR is increasing the number and size of its awards to ensure that excellent researchers continue to pursue this funding opportunity.
NIDRR also plans to review and expand its training activities to foster the continued development of excellent researchers, especially individuals with disabilities, for the disability research endeavor. In addition, NIDRR plans to develop a training database to identify and track people trained in NIDRR’s programs and their participation in the disability and rehabilitation fields. The training database will help facilitate the development of a trainee network that will include a Web site; a list-serv for people who participate in NIDRR training programs; and a directory of current and past trainees, scholars, and fellows. This network will contribute to more opportunities for in-person presentations and interactions among NIDRR trainees.
Continuous Participatory Planning
NIDRR will formalize an ongoing process for reviewing and revising the Long-Range Plan on a periodic basis, and for ensuring that meaningful annual priorities are crafted based on the plan. This process will involve:
- establishing agenda-setting work groups in each of the outcome areas designated in the plan. These work groups will meet periodically and will be responsible for substantive recommendations, in their respective areas, for both annual priorities and new five-year goals;
- holding at least one public hearing each year. This hearing, which will focus on one substantive area, will evaluate current work and identify future needs in that area. These hearings will be held in different parts of the country, and will take advantage, where possible, of videoconferencing or satellite broadcasting techniques to allow the hearings to be available to more people nationwide. NIDRR will seek organizations active in the particular substantive areas to cosponsor the hearings;
- convening ad hoc focus groups in subject areas that need further exploration before including them as an annual priority;
- using both internal and external participants to develop a combined Strategic/Program Plan and beginning that process two years in advance of the expected products; and
- evaluating NIDRR performance under GPRA, in part to determine whether annual priorities are derived from and are consistent with the plan.
NIDRR will assess the progress of its continuous planning effort. Then, NIDRR will convey this information in an annual report to the Congress.
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