Active Living Research is an ongoing national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to identify environmental factors and policies that can substantially increase levels of physical activity and to provide policy-makers with evidence about how to create more activity-friendly communities.

The program's specific objectives are to:

• Establish a strong research base regarding the environmental and policy correlates of physical activity.
• Help build a transdisciplinary field of physical activity, policy and environmental researchers. RWJF describes transdisciplinary field building as "a process by which researchers work jointly using a shared conceptual framework that draws together discipline-specific theories, methods and measures."
• Facilitate the use of research to support policy change.

Key Results
Between April 2001 and June 2008:

• The national program office funded 122 research studies, including 21 dissertation grants, six diversity partnership grants and 11 case studies. A substantive proportion of these studies addressed barriers to and/or strategies for creating more physical- activity friendly environments and promoting everyday physical activity in high-risk, low-income and racial/ethnic minority populations and communities. A significant portion of all grants focused on children, adolescents and their families.
• Funded investigators published more than 98 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including in special issues, special sections or supplements of four journals supported by the program.
• As of September 2006, 15 investigators reported that their Active Living Research grant helped them leverage $8.7 million in other funds, or about $580,000 per investigator.
• As of June 2006, funded investigators reported the development of 121 new courses, seminars, lectures, supervision or other educational programs related to active living at their educational institutions.
• The national program office helped create a $20-million obesity and built environment initiative led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in cooperation with other National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Key Evaluation Findings
From June 2006 to July 2007, two evaluation teams from Gutman Research Associates (Cranbury, N.J.) and Group Health Community Foundation (Seattle), assessed the program's success in meeting its original objectives and its potential to adapt in light of a change in RWJF's focus from physical activity in general to preventing childhood obesity. They collected data mostly in mid-to-late 2006.

• Active Living Research contributed to building a research base about environmental correlates of physical activity. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of published papers about these connections increased from 45 to 301.
• Active Living Research investigators came from more than 20 disciplines. Some 31 percent had five years or less research experience when they received their Active Living Research grant. Some 26 percent of investigators are people of color.
• Active Living Research made some progress in contributing to policy discussions, but the program's influence is in its early stages, and it can do more in this area.
• Active Living Research is well positioned to support RWJF's goal to prevent and reduce childhood obesity. In 2002, when RWJF established this major goal, Active Living Research began giving some priority to studies in this area. Overall, since its inception through June 2007, Active Living Research has funded 42 studies that focus on young people; 13 of those explicitly address obesity.

Program Management
RWJF established a national program office at San Diego State University to manage Active Living Research and provide assistance to funded researchers.

To establish the research base, the national program office:

• Issued seven rounds of Calls for Proposals (CFPs) soliciting investigator-initiated studies addressing priority topics.
• Commissioned papers and funded supplemental studies and special projects to address issues not covered via the CFPs.

To build a transdisciplinary field of physical activity, policy and environmental researchers, the national program office:

• Supported dissertation studies by students engaged in transdisciplinary research as part of their doctoral programs.
• Issued diversity partnership grants to researchers studying active living issues in minority or underserved communities.
• Convened annual conferences and sponsored seminar programs that brought together researchers and policy-makers from a variety of disciplines.
• Encouraged applicants to apply in teams consisting of investigators from multiple disciplines.
• Created a Web site to aid researchers; it includes information on grants and results, literature searches, tools and resources, and conference information.

To increase the likelihood that research findings would be used by policy-makers, the national program office:

• Prepared Research Summaries synthesizing research findings so as to make them practical for policy-makers to use.
• Devoted one round of Call for Proposal projects to case studies of on-the-ground initiatives.
• Worked with the RWJF program Leadership for Healthy Communities, its member national organizations representing elected and appointed officials and targeted advocacy organizations to disseminate key findings.
• Worked closely also with RWJF communications staff to disseminate key findings to critical stakeholder groups (e.g., policy-makers and practitioners at the institutional, community, state or national level).

Funding
In July 2000, RWJF's Board of Trustees authorized up to $12.5 million for the research budget for Active Living Research. In October 2007, the Trustees authorized up to an additional $22.1 million for the program, of which $15.4 million was for research.