NIH Funding Opportunities in Implementation Science for Social Workers

Background and Purpose: Research has led to a substantial body of knowledge regarding service delivery and other practices demonstrated efficacious in improving human health and well-being.   Yet many of these evidence-based practices fail to achieve regular, appropriate, and sustainable use by stakeholders in the real world. The relatively new and interdisciplinary field of Implementation Science (IS) strives to increase knowledge about how to understand and accelerate the successful application of evidence-based practices across the spectrum of stakeholders, contexts, and health and social issues, in both high- and low-resource settings. Social work perspectives and methods have proven to be invaluable in IS efforts to-date.  Alternately, Implementation Science is of great value to social work in that it can systematically inform social work practice in implementing evidence based interventions.   Indeed Implementation Science concepts, theories and methods can be incorporated into social work practice from service delivery, organizational management and policy.

 This workshop features two NIH program directors, themselves social workers, who will discuss research opportunities for social work in Implementation Science. The workshop seeks to stimulate further social work contributions to Implementation Science area by presenting the re-issued NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health.  

Methods: This will be an interactive event with speakers reviewing the announcement section by section with workshop participants.   Slides highlighting areas of the announcement will be shown and handouts of the announcement will be provided.   Topics covered will be 1) a brief overview of concepts, values and methods in Implementation Science, specifically relating it to social work concerns, 2) current controversies in implementation, 3) changes in the funding announcement from the previously issued version, 4) research priorities highlighted in the announcement that present specific opportunities for social work researchers, and 5) available IS training and networking opportunities.

Results and Conclusions: The overall objectives of this proposed workshop are 1) to increase awareness about this IS funding opportunity and its relevance for social work researchers at various stages in their careers, 2) to emphasize its potential for ongoing support for social work research and development of the profession, and 3) encourage the social work field to actively contribute to IS and invite participants to submit applications to NIH.