Abstract
The National Occupational Research Agenda was developed by NIOSH and its public and private partners to provide a framework needed to guide research in the coming decade. The stated goal of the process was to prioritize work that would afford research in both the public and private sectors. Decision makers, scientists, and safety and health professionals in all areas of occupational safety and health are expected to use the research agenda. NIOSH has selected those research priorities endorsed by three or more of the five working groups for inclusion in the draft final agenda. Most items selected actually had a much broader support. The final Agenda had broad based support for the following 21 priority items: disease and injury (allergic and irritant dermatitis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, fertility and pregnancy abnormalities, hearing loss, infectious diseases, low back disorders, musculoskeletal disorders of the upper extremities, and traumatic injuries); work environment and workforce (emerging technologies, indoor environment, mixed exposures, organization of work, and special populations at risk); and research tools and approaches (cancer research methods, control technology and personal protective equipment, exposure assessment methods, health services research, intervention effectiveness research, risk assessment methods, social and economic consequences of workplace injury and illness, and surveillance research methods).
