Measuring the Success of NORA

Tracking Research Funding in NORA
Priority Areas

NIOSH Funding

As the only Federal agency with a mandate to conduct and fund occupational safety and health research, NIOSH made a commitment to redirect some of its resources to the 21 NORA priority areas. Data are available to track both the number of projects and total economic resources in each priority area.

In FY 1996, at the time the Agenda was unveiled, the NIOSH baseline investment in the NORA priority areas was $15.4 million (approximately 9 percent of the FY 1996 budget). Of this, $8.7 million was devoted to intramural research (NIOSH-conducted) and cooperative agreements (NIOSH-funded extramural research in which NIOSH directly participates), and $6.7 million for research grants (extramural investigator-initiated projects). A redirection of resources in FY 1997 nearly doubled this investment to $28.1 million. A new $5 million special Congressional appropriation to NIOSH in FY 1998 for NORA, coupled with additional reinvestment of baseline monies into NORA priority areas, resulted in $46.9 million of research (about 25 percent of the budget) in NORA priority areas for FY 1998.

In FY 1999, continued Congressional support for NORA as well as ongoing internal resource allocation resulted in $61.1 million of NIOSH research funds (31 percent of the budget) directed at NORA priority areas. In FY 2000, an $11.3 million Congressional appropriation for NORA contributed to the estimated $72.3 million allocated to NORA priorities (34 percent of the NIOSH budget).

Such an increase is tangible evidence of NIOSH's commitment to NORA. This shift is particularly notable given existing Congressional mandates and obligations that limit how much of the NIOSH budget can be redirected. An ongoing effort has been in place since NORA's inception to assure that these shifts are "real" (rather than merely a reporting artifact) using consistent definitions and an independent evaluation team to assess projects for NORA-relatedness.