Technical assistance and direction for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Practice-Based Research Network in Public Health program

The Foundation's initiative, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Practice-Based Research Network in Public Health, was designed to develop a practice-based research network for public health to help stakeholders understand how public health systems research can be used to improve public health performance and impact.The current evidence base on how best to organize, finance, and deliver public health services across U.S. communities remains thin, leaving policy makers and administrators with limited empirical guidance for establishing public health programs, laws, and budgets. The purpose of this grant is to demonstrate how practice-based research networks (PBRNs) can expand the volume and quality of research on public health systems and services, thereby enhancing the ability of state and local public health agencies to translate and apply research findings through evidence-based practice. A PBRN is defined as a collection of public health agencies and their partner organizations engaged in an ongoing collaboration with an academic research center to conduct rigorous, applied studies of strategies for organizing, financing, and/or delivering public health services in real world community settings. Key activities of this grant include: (1) developing a feasible and replicable PBRN conceptual model for public health agencies; (2) creating a coordinating office for a public health PBRN; (3) developing a national PBRN infrastructure comprised of 15 local PBRNs; and (4) supporting a portfolio of public health research studies through the networks.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $380,608.00

Awarded on: 10/22/2008

Time frame: 11/1/2008 - 10/31/2009

Grant Number: 64676