Report Publish Date: March 1, 2021
This issue brief describes an evaluation of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action, or E4A, research program.
“Since 2017, E4A has made several important changes to its program, including adding several new forms of applicant technical assistance, launching an initiative focused on outreach to more diverse applicants, and developing strategic partnerships to plan innovative dissemination activities،” the authors write.
While the program has made efforts to boost the number of applicants and grantees of color and those outside of traditional, highly resourced institutions, it has also faced challenges. E4A has funded timely, cross-sector studies, according to respondents interviewed for the evaluation. But its broad research agenda limits its impact on any specific field.
E4A is a research program that RWJF started in 2015. It has funded studies meant to spur action on important health topics and provided technical assistance to researchers studying innovative interventions. E4A is run by a National Program Office at the University of California, San Francisco. A matching service run by Accelerating Collaborations for Evaluation (ACE) at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health pairs community-based organizations with researchers who might be able to evaluate their health interventions. RWJF contracted with the authors of this report to evaluate the program’s recent strategic changes, its impact, its dissemination of research, and its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
The authors interviewed 30 people, including RWJF and UCSF staff, grantees and grant applicants, matching program staff, and external stakeholders. They also reviewed grant program data, applicant data, and an applicant survey.
“Since its inception in 2015, E4A has funded a portfolio of important studies designed to spur action on population health topics and developed a technical assistance program to help researchers and community organizations working to develop rigorous evaluations of innovative interventions.”
— Colleen Staatz, Mira Wang, Luke Horner, and Cara Orfield, Mathematica
Evaluating its grant programs can help RWJF ensure it is using best practices to invest in research whose findings could be put into practice to build a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.
This study and report was conducted and created by the following people.
