Guiding NORA Implementation
Liaison Committee

The NORA Liaison Committee, chaired by Dr. Bonnie Rogers (American Association of Occupational Health Nurses), consists of 24 members representing industry, labor, academia, professional organizations, and government (see listing on page 2). The Liaison Committee's role is to provide outreach and commentary on the development, progress, and direction of NORA implementation.

In 1999, the Liaison Committee undertook a survey of key occupational safety and health professional organizations. Of the 948 respondents, 42 percent reported that they were aware of NORA. Among this group, 30 percent reported that NORA had changed the research priorities of their organizations. Twenty percent reported that NORA had increased funding for their organization's research and 35 percent responded that NORA had increased partnerships between both researchers and organizations. Additionally, 47 percent responded that NORA had increased the quality of occupational safety and health research.

The Liaison Committee is also responsible for administering the NORA Partnership Award for Worker Safety and Health. The Committee will oversee the nomination and selection process of this biennial award honoring outstanding partnership activities.

Federal Liaison Committee

The Federal Liaison Committee (see listing on next page) is an interagency working group guiding the implementation of NORA. In 1999, the Committee undertook the second biennial survey of federal investment in NORA and in occupational safety and health research overall. The first survey, covering FY 1996, provided a baseline identifying a total of only $199 million spent for all occupational safety and health research from the survey respondents (including NIOSH), compared to $218 million in FY 1998. Although the overall increase in spending was not large, there was a substantial increase in spending in NORA priority areas, from $30 million in FY 1996 to $70 million in FY 1998 (see page 9).

Members of the Federal Liaison Committee have also been active in leveraging additional resources for NORA. In FY 2000, NIOSH and 10 federal partners announced the third consecutive year of grant funding in the NORA priority research areas (see description on page 12).