The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sets out its research and service goals for fiscal years 2019–2026 in its Strategic Plan. The goals cover a wide range of workplace hazards, for a workforce that keeps changing: jobs moving from manufacturing to services, longer hours, less job security and an aging workforce — all competing for NIOSH's limited research resources.
The plan is not fixed. New issues may arise or grow in importance, goals that have been met may be retired, and priorities may shift. Outside researchers seeking NIOSH funding get priority when they state clearly which strategic and intermediate goals their work serves.
The seven strategic goals
- Reduce occupational cancer, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcomes and other chronic diseases.
- Reduce occupational hearing loss.
- Reduce occupational immune, infectious and skin (dermal) disease.
- Reduce occupational musculoskeletal disorders.
- Reduce occupational respiratory disease.
- Improve workplace safety to reduce traumatic injuries.
- Promote safe and healthy work design and well-being.
Three levels of goals
| Level | Research | Services |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic | the seven goals above | the same seven |
| Intermediate | what organizations and people would ideally do with NIOSH findings or products | improvements to, and upkeep of, services that make it easier for others to act |
| Activity | research that moves work from research toward practice | work that keeps services timely, relevant and high-quality |
Research and service programs wrote the goals together using the Burden, Need, and Impact Method, drawing on surveillance data, partners' input and legal requirements. Research and services are treated separately because they work differently.
How research is organized
NIOSH's research programs follow the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) framework:
- 10 sector programs, each covering an industry sector;
- 7 cross-sector programs, each on a major health and safety issue across the U.S. workforce;
- threaded through that grid, core and specialty programs for core activities, legal mandates, special emphasis areas and research methods.
Together they range from basic to applied research.
NIOSH's 10-by-7 program grid. Image from CDC's page
Services
NIOSH's services serve people and organizations outside the institute, support its own staff, or both — and some are required by law. A service may serve one sector (the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, for mining) or many (Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation, FACE, which investigates deaths across many industries and causes). They include:
- respirator approvals;
- Health Hazard Evaluations (HHE);
- radiation dose reconstruction;
- emergency preparedness and response;
- the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program.
Sources
Based on "NIOSH Strategic Plan," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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