The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released three Program Announcements on December 1, 2005 to fund research in social work practice
and concepts in health. These announcements grew from the NIH Plan for Social
Work Research (http://obssr.od.nih.gov/Publications/SWR_Report.pdf), and were developed through the leadership of the Office of
Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and the trans-NIH Social Work Workgroup.
This milestone in the development of social work research capacity-building provides opportunity to not only build
our profession’s evidence base, but also to strengthen social work research capacity across multiple NIH Institutes
and Centers.
Recognizing that social
work impacts health and health care delivery across multiple diseases and populations, the Institutes and Offices supporting
these announcements include the:
National Cancer Institute (NCI), (http://www.nci.nih.gov)
National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI), (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov)
National Institute on Aging (NIA), (http://www.nia.nih.gov)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
(http://www.niaaa.nih.gov)
National Institute on Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD), (http://www.nichd.nih.gov)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), (http://www.nida.nih.gov)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), (http://www.nimh.nih.gov)
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), (http://www.ninr.nih.gov)
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR),
(http://obssr.od.nih.gov)
Office of Disease Prevention (ODP), (http://odp.od.nih.gov/)
Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), (http://www4.od.nih.gov/orwh/)
These PAs build upon efforts
over the past decade to support social work research and build research capacity by NIMH, NIDA, NIAAA, NCI, and NIA. It also supports recommendations from the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of
Sciences report - Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Research: Forging Partnerships with Community-Based Drug and Alcohol
Treatment, and Health Services (1998). As stated in the program announcements,
“the goals of this program are three-fold: (1) to encourage submissions of research studies relevant to both social
work practice and to the missions of individual NIH institutes, (2) to develop an empirical knowledge base on an important
but often neglected component of the “real world” health care system, and (3) to increase the participation of
social work researchers in interdisciplinary public health research. These goals
are viewed as critical to improving the quality and outcomes of health care in this country.”
Researchers may submit
grants under three NIH funding mechanisms: R01 (independent researcher initiated
grants), R03 (small research grants), and R21(exploratory/developmental research grants). These funding announcements expire
in 2009.
RESEARCH ON SOCIAL
WORK PRACTICE AND CONCEPTS IN HEALTH (R01)
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-081.html
RESEARCH
ON SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE AND CONCEPTS IN HEALTH (R03)
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-082.html
RESEARCH ON SOCIAL
WORK PRACTICE AND CONCEPTS IN HEALTH (R01)
http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-083.html
The Institute for the Advancement of Social
Work Research (IASWR) continues to work closely with NIH, especially the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research
(OBSSR) and the NIH Social Work Workgroup to build social work research capacity. To
keep current on funding opportunities and researcher training opportunities, subscribe to the IASWR Listserv Announcements
by visiting the IASWR website at www.iaswresearch.org and click on Listserv. For
technical resource information about submitting grants to NIH click on Technical Resources on the IASWR website or visit www.nih.gov.
