Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research is a national program that aims to build the capacity of the health policy field by offering general research support for innovative ideas that are unlikely to be funded elsewhere.

The program encourages investigators to think creatively about the most important problems affecting American health and health care and to contribute to the intellectual foundation of future health policy. It serves as one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) main vehicles for funding research on broad health policy issues. Grants to investigators range in size up to a maximum of $335,000 and in length from two to four years.

Key Results

• From 1993 to April 2008, the program made awards totaling more than $34.5 million to 170 investigators (listed on the program's Web site). The investigators were drawn from such fields as economics, public health, sociology, political science, ethics, journalism, medicine and law.
• As of April 2008, the investigators supported by this award program had collectively published 57 books, two special issues of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 89 book chapters, and 588 papers in more than 150 journals including Health Affairs, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Milbank Quarterly, Social Science and Medicine, and Health Services Research.
• Numerous Investigator Award recipients reported that the award had had a significant impact on their career and their research interests.
• Several investigators have received outside awards for the work they did while they were investigators.
• Some of the investigators have been able to obtain additional funding support for work related to the topic of their Investigator Award, adding value to RWJF's investment.

(See Project List for links to Grant Results reports on a selection of the research projects funded by the program.)

Program Management
Since January 2001, the national program office has been located at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Prior to that time, the program was under the direction of a national program office at the Association for Health Services Research (AHSR), now called AcademyHealth after a merger with the Alpha Center for Health Planning.

Funding
The RWJF Board of Trustees originally authorized the program in 1991 and has approved total authorizations of up to $57.3 million though July 2010.