Social Research and Development of Limited Use to National Policymakers

Federally-supported social research and development (R&D) includes projects directed toward improving the well-being of people and programs in the areas of: education, staffing, health, income security, social services, housing and community development, civil rights, transportation, and crime. Social R&D projects are intended to provide knowledge for policymakers in developing national social policies.

Federal R&D is generally authorized in broad subject areas to serve State and local government agencies and is of limited use to national policymakers. Social R&D agency planning is fragmented and decentralized and permits agencies wide latitude. Guidance for monitoring social R&D is vague or nonexistent, and the dissemination of social R&D results has been relatively ineffective and uncoordinated. Such factors as the inaccessibility of information has made use of social R&D results difficult. Officials in policymaking positions in 10 Federal agencies and departments expressed dissatisfaction with Federal management in the planning and monitoring of social R&D and in the dissemination and use of results.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record