This project, funded by the Studies of Policy, Science, Engineering and Technology component of the Science and Society program, provides partial support to the National Academy of Sciences' Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) to establish a committee on research and evidentiary standards for applied social science. The committee will initiate and host interdisciplinary activities designed to: build bridges between high quality research and the appropriate and realistic uses of research evidence to guide decision making; tackle the conceptual and practical issues in setting evidentiary standards for applied research; identify opportunities to improve professional training in applied behavioral and social science; foster partnerships between DBASSE, the National Academies, and outside organizations concerned with related issues; and advance a culture of improved research, communication, diffusion, and understanding of opportunities and barriers for utilization of research in public policy. The committee will commission papers from diverse scholars and research users, conduct workshops for researchers and policy makers, develop projects on specific questions and issues that warrant in-depth study, and foster a broad and continuing dialog in the research and user communities. The scope of study is intendedly broad: though specific cases and examples necessarily focus on particular sectors and disciplines, the aim is to improve the quality and utility of research across many domains of inquiry and policy. The goal of the study is to strengthen the quality and utility of social science research and address many conceptual issues of evidentiary standards. The study would eventually lead to more theories and rigorous research to underlie public policies, improved methods for discerning evidence from theory and research, and greater utility of social science research in the application to public policy.
