Review of Outreach Activities: Knowledge Diffusion and Technology Transfer - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 111

and connected to move the results of surveillance, research, and intervention to
the appropriate target populations at risk, whether employees or employers. The
logic submodel (Figure 8-1) identifies inputs, activities, outputs, and intermediate
and end outcomes.
INPUTS
On the basis of the materials in the evidence package, the committee concluded
that about 17 percent of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) budget was devoted to Goal 5 over the period 1997-2006. That translates
to about $800,000 per year for the intramural programs and $2.1 million per year
for the extramural programs. The work involved about six full-time equivalents
(FTEs) at NIOSH per year. The committee was unable to break out the funding or
FTEs associated with Goal 5 at the NIOSH Centers for Agricultural Disease and
Injury Research, Education, and Prevention (Ag Centers) but summarizes here the
activities, outputs, and outcomes from the evidence package.
Planning inputs included the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA,
2000), the National Coalition on Occupational Safety and Health (NCASH) report,
and congressional directives. Many of the conferences, workshops, and symposia
cited in Chapter 10 may also have helped to set priorities for this goal and other
AFF efforts, but they are not so referenced. The logic model starts with the iden-
tification of the problems, knowledge gaps, and documentation of areas of severe
or significant mortality, morbidity, and injuries. NIOSH identifies them in the
opening chapters of the evidence package, but the evidence package often does not
connect the materials to the goal of knowledge diffusion and technology transfer.
The second input required is a planning and priority-setting process commu-
nicated to NIOSH through the NORA process or from stakeholders. This process
is currently underway.
The third stage is the application of priorities to intramural or extramu-
ral research through requests for proposals and principal-investigator initiatives.
Surveillance projects and research conducted at this stage are expected to provide
results for dissemination and improved processes, equipment, personal protective
gear, and behavioral changes. The mechanisms for improvement include identifi-
able actions and proposed solutions, but these still need implementation through
engineering, behavioral, or regulatory actions. The engineering solutions require
diffusion of knowledge and implementation at the level of the manufacturer or
employer and occasionally the worker. Behavioral changes require a mechanism
for knowledge diffusion and attitude, motivational, and behavioral changes in
practices associated with the workplace. Regulatory changes require a process to
pass laws, write regulations or rules associated with the workplace, and have them