Federal agency management practices for prioritizing and funding rehabilitation-related research

This article focuses on the processes by which priorities are established and research is funded by three organizational entities that finance the preponderance of this country's rehabilitation-related research: the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (the focal point of rehabilitation research at the National Institutes of Health), and the National Institutes of Health in aggregate (i.e., the several institutes that support rehabilitation-related research). Two perspectives are emphasized: the stakeholders' opportunities to influence deliberations at key steps in setting priorities and reaching funding decisions and the extent to which these management practices are explicitly conceptualized, transparent, and evidence-based. Those perspectives are brought to bear on three pivotal considerations: the agencies' commitment to directed vs. nondirected research, the role they assign to strategic planning, and their approach to reviewing applications for funding.