CDC RFA-OH-22-002: 2024 Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health (U54)

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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites applications for the Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health (Ag Centers). These centers are expected to conduct high quality research and subsequently disseminate their findings and recommendations in audience appropriate products to contribute to improving the safety and health of agriculture, forestry, and fishing workers. Center structure should take advantage of diverse scientific resources and focus on local, regional, and/or national worker safety and health issues. Emphasis should be placed on the creation and implementation of evidence-based solutions that address important agricultural, forestry, and fishing safety and health problems. Centers should also use innovative approaches to identifying, understanding, and developing strategies for overcoming barriers to the adoption, adaptation, integration, scale-up and sustainability of evidence-based solutions. Collaborations with other academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other occupational safety and health focused groups are expected. Applicants must concisely describe the occupational safety and health burden within their service area and directly link research and outreach activities to help alleviate the burden. Applicants should also clearly articulate the anticipated impacts of the proposed work, both during the project period and beyond.

Ag Center Structure

NIOSH Ag Centers provide interdisciplinary research and outreach efforts to address AgFF-related occupational health and safety problems. Applicants should keep in mind the required and optional components essential to Ag Center function, detailed below, in providing an overall description of the proposed Ag Center, addressing 1) the burden of occupational injuries and illnesses within their region for this work sector, 2) the regional and national need for the Ag Center’s proposed programs and projects, and 3) the Center’s impact, or potential for impact, on AgFF worker health and safety.

The following required components enable Ag Centers to cohesively address their goals and objectives for providing impact:

Evaluation and Planning Core. The purpose of the Evaluation and Planning Core is to 1) provide oversight, leadership, and management for the Center, including establishment and maintenance of advisory committees; 2) engage in long-range planning, coordination, and implementation of work that crosses multiple cores, programs or projects; and 3) develop and assist in implementing evaluation efforts at the Center, core, program and project levels. Any collaborative projects with other Ag Centers should include the Evaluation and Planning Core for the purposes of oversight and coordination.

Outreach Core. The purpose of the Outreach Core is to ensure that evidence-based approaches, technologies, guidelines, policies, best practices, or similar activities are promoted and implemented in affected populations to benefit workers and their associated work environments. Much of the work in the Outreach Core will be implemented through partnerships and collaborations with nonprofit organizations, community groups, industry groups, employers, or similar entities.

Research Core. The purpose of the Research Core is to develop programs and projects in response to the goals identified in the Center's strategic plan and subsequently manage, monitor, and coordinate this work within the Center. Research activities include basic/etiologic, intervention, translation, and surveillance. Activities can vary widely, from pilot or feasibility studies that are minimally resourced and may be exploratory in nature to large, R01-like projects that require preliminary data and significant investment in personnel, equipment, time, and space. The Research Core is comprised of the required research projects and the optional Pilot/Feasibility Program Please note, the "Research Core" is not an actual component within the application - instead it is a construct to address budget limits across multiple and varied activities (i.e., required research projects and the optional pilot/feasibility program). There is no limitation to the number of research projects that applicants can propose as long as they stay within the annual direct costs requirements.

Objectives/Outcomes

The primary goal of an Ag Center is to conduct high quality scientific research and outreach efforts to address local, regional, and national AgFF problems. This will ultimately be accomplished through the goals in the Center’s Strategic Plan. However, the operational process for accomplishing these goals should not be overlooked and therefore, each core, program and project should develop operational objectives to support the goals in the Plan.

Target Population

There are many affected subpopulations in AgFF professions. The attributes of these affected subpopulations (such as demographics, size, risks/hazards encountered, and resources available to educate or assist in addressing the problem) will drive the proposed projects and their anticipated outputs and impacts. Ag Centers are distributed throughout the nation to be responsive to safety and health issues unique to different regions of the country. The risks inherent to an AgFF job are often dependent on the work environment, local/industry work practices, and specific job tasks. Therefore, Ag Centers should clearly describe the specific target populations they are focusing their efforts on and provide information to support the need for these proposed efforts.

Industry Sectors, Health and Safety Cross-sectors, and Goals

In the Project Description/Abstract of the application, state which industry sector(s) and health and safety cross-sector(s) the proposed work will address. Provide a clear rationale for how the intended outcomes of the proposed project will contribute to the specified goals in NIOSH's Strategic Plan and, in particular, those identified in the NIOSH Priority Goals for Extramural Research.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

In June 2019, NIOSH began an initiative to take substantive action in creating greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in its workforce, the workplace and in its service to the public. This initiative led to the establishment of the NIOSH Diversity and Inclusion Office. The associated strategic plan is intended to guide actions that specifically address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in all aspects of NIOSH's work, including NIOSH-supported extramural programs. Ag Centers should demonstrate a commitment to DEI in all aspects of their center. This commitment should be reflected in the center's core values, mission and outputs.

Asymmetrical power relationships along social axes such as age, class, gender, nativity, and race/ethnicity not only result in social, economic, and environmental disadvantages that impact the distribution of work-related benefits and risks but also result in exclusionary research practices. Developing inclusive research practices, and the institutional capacity to effectively produce data driven solutions that reduce these avoidable inequities, is essential to ensuring the well-being of the increasingly diverse AgFF workforce.

Applicants should describe how they propose to ensure inclusive governance and practice in the required center components (Evaluation and Planning, Outreach, and Research). Discussion should include, but not be limited to, how historically underrepresented groups will be included in agenda setting for the work of the center. For example, this may include participation on advisory boards, as researchers/staff and through partnerships. Applicants should also identify how the center will ensure that research questions, data collection methods and analysis, and dissemination of results will be inclusive of the diversity in the AgFF workforce, especially those from historically underrepresented groups. Applicants should demonstrate how the design, content, format, and dissemination of outreach efforts will be tailored to the needs of workers from diverse backgrounds.

Collaboration/Partnerships

Ag Centers must demonstrate collaborative efforts by working with a diverse and broad range of organizations to enhance worker safety and health in their region. Possible collaborators include universities, labor and professional associations, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and federal, state, or local public health and regulatory agencies. Centers should seek to address a wide range of occupational safety and health concerns in their region, as determined by the burdens posed by these problems or hazards, and their funding applications must describe how their efforts will alleviate or eliminate these burdens.

Evaluation/Performance Measurement

All Center activities should be managed and coordinated as part of the Evaluation and Planning Core. This core is responsible for all new and ongoing center-wide evaluation activities as well as supporting program and project level evaluation efforts. These activities should all be described in a Center evaluation plan. Ag Centers are also strongly encouraged to interact with each other on evaluation methods and best practices, to increase awareness of activities and evaluation techniques. Similarly, centers will work with each other and NIOSH during the performance period to develop shared logic models on common AgFF health and safety outcomes. In addition to center-specific evaluation and performance measurement, Ag Centers may be asked to participate in NIOSH evaluation efforts related to the NIOSH AgFF Program and the NIOSH Evaluation Capacity Building Plan.

Translation Plan

The transfer of evidence-based approaches to intermediaries such as unions, manufacturers, worker groups and end users (employers and workers) through training, conferences, community gatherings, social media, blogs, websites and infographics, peer-reviewed and lay publications, etc. is an essential function of the Outreach Core. While research strengthens our understanding of the determinants of injury, illness, and death, the potential for impact of research findings is found when paired with pragmatic approaches to move findings into practice.