NIOSH Completes NORA's Second Decade, Readies for Third
"With this report, we have a clear picture of the value of bringing together groups that all have an interest in occupational safety and health and the impact we can have when we work together on shared goals," Director Dr. John Howard said.
NIOSH has posted its report, "National Occupational Research Agenda: Second Decade in Review | 2006–2016," summarizing the activities, effectiveness, outcomes, and impacts of work during that period by NIOSH and its NORA partners.
The agency's director, Dr. John Howard, notes in a foreword that decade two was intended to answer how research could be better moved into practice to prevent workplace illnesses and injuries. He wrote that, as the agency looks ahead to 2026, he and his colleagues hope the document and a supplement to it will be useful in crafting the next decade of partnerships to address the U.S. workforce's most pressing needs.
NORA developed 10 stakeholder partnerships, called sector councils, during the second decade to set research priorities. The 10 are:
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
- Construction
- Health care and social assistance
- Manufacturing
- Mining
- Oil and gas extraction
- Public safety
- Services
- Transportation, warehousing, and utilities
- Wholesale and retail trade
The Sector and Cross Sector Program Supplement report provides program-specific results on the work of each of those areas and 24 cross-sector programs that NIOSH developed to support the NORA sector program goals and objectives.
Discussing outcomes and impact, the report notes that authors in 164 countries cited NIOSH's work during the second decade, and 722 numbered publications from the agency were downloaded 1,215,979 times and another 2,750,061 hard copies were requested. Mining was the sector with the most publications (150, with 66,227 downloads and 62,194 hard copies requested), while health care and social assistance had the most downloads, 288,458, and agriculture, forestry, and fishing the most hard copies distributed, 1,509,384.
"As we continue moving forward into the third decade of NORA, it is important to reflect on the progress we have made through the efforts of NIOSH researchers and our partners," Howard said. "With this report, we have a clear picture of the value of bringing together groups that all have an interest in occupational safety and health and the impact we can have when we work together on shared goals."