Strategic Plan
Background
Describe SSW’s programs of research or scholarship, including the robustness of each
What are the 5 most successful areas of research and scholarship and where do these rank vis-à-vis key peers?
Over the past six years, faculty have been most heavily funded in the areas of substance abuse ($3.5 million since 1999) and aging ($3.2 million), with substantial support also garnered for child welfare training ($1.6 million), mental health ($1.6 million) and health ($0.8 million) related research. Substance abuse research funds have been obtained mainly from federal and foundation sources (NIDA, CSAT, Robert Wood Johnson) for projects on substance abuse among minority populations, injection drug users, and counselor training. Funding for aging-related projects has come from foundations (Atlantic Philanthropies, Hartford Foundation, Retirement Research Foundation) and is currently largely focused on training social workers across the country in gerontology practice. Faculty members have garnered federal child welfare training and evaluation funds for several years now. Research on mental health has been funded by NIMH to study obsessive compulsive and related disorders and also by other federal, state and private foundations for MH needs assessment in a local Indian tribe, new mothers at risk for depression, and adolescent mentoring relationships. Health and disability research is supported by state and federal (SAMSHA, CDC, CSAT) contracts to study HIV prevention among minorities, disability, men’s health, and health policy. Some federal (HUD) and foundation funding (Farnsworth) ($0.3 million) has been secured for service needs research.
It has been difficult to locate information that will allow us to compare SSW faculty research and scholarly activity to our peer institutions. Only BC provides website information about current grants (total of 28, five of which are federal and 19 foundation grants), estimated at $1.9 million. Although the number of grants exceeds our own, the total dollar amount appears to be slightly smaller. We suspect we are on par with this program. We have little doubt that our grant activity is lower than that of Columbia, Wash. U., and U. of Mich. but are uncertain about the comparison with UC Berkeley. In a 2002 report, SSW faculty publication rates ranked 10th among national schools of social work, slightly below these peer schools excepting BC. More recent data would be useful, but it is clear that our track record in research funding and publication rates is very good nationally, but there is room for improvement.
Which areas of research/scholarship have grown and which have declined at SSW over the past 5 years?
With regard to content areas, funding for projects on gerontology/aging has increased steadily, again mainly due to the large Atlantic Philanthropies project. With several faculty specializing in aging policy (Geron, Hudson, Gonyea), SSW has already established a reputation in this arena and has the capability to garner continued substantial funding for aging-related projects. The addition of a faculty member who specializes in clinical interventions with aging clients would round out the expertise among this faculty complement.
SSW houses the Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse which has held research and training funds on substance abuse for many years. Over the past six years, project funding in this area has declined from a high of $1.1 million in 2001-2 to about $300,000 last year, largely due to the ending of a five-year NIDA center grant in 2002. However, funding from CSAT and NIDA for training and evaluation projects has continued quite steadily over the past several years. Again, this is an area in which SSW has several very active faculty researchers (Amodeo, Lundgren, Delgado) who are likely to obtain continued funding over the coming years.
National child welfare training projects have been funded steadily for the past several years, climbing from $150,000 to the current level of $425,000 (Collins, Amodeo, Clay). Research in this area and on children and families in general is likely to continue and expand. Mental health research on adolescents and adults has gradually increased over the past six years and is now at about $500,000/year, mainly from NIMH (Steketee), with additional foundation and local funds (Paris, Spencer). With several new faculty whose research is also mental health focused and some policy faculty who have obtained past funding for mental health needs assessment, this is a likely area for continued expansion.
Funding for health and disability-related projects remains modest but steady at about $150,000/year over the past several years from multiple contracts (Bachman). In addition to this continuing health policy research, faculty hired in recent years are currently pursuing health and health disparities research and are likely to obtain federal funding in this important area. This work could dovetail well with our popular dual degree program with public health and would be an area of interest to pursue.
Describe the balance of support for research or scholarship at SSW among competitive external government grants, company-sponsored research, philanthropic foundation grants, and individual donations.
The bulk of SSW research and training funds derive from federal sources (NIDA, CSAT, NIMH, HHS/ACF, CDC, SAMHSA), with almost matching funds now obtained from private foundations and small grants from state sources. SSW has seen considerable growth in private foundation funding over the past few years, largely due to a five-year $5 million grant from Atlantic Philanthropies in 2002 to provide social work training nationwide in delivering services to the elderly. This grant will end in 2007; renewal of this project is possible, even likely based on recent discussions of the PI with the Foundation. Federal funds have fluctuated between $900,000 and $1.3 million during this period, rising over the past 3 years and likely to remain at or above the current level for the coming years. State grant funding has declined from $300-400,000 to below $100,000 over the past six years.
Individual donations have not been used to support research and scholarship because of the continuing need to provide student aid. However, alumni giving is an important area to pursue in providing endowment funds to support faculty and student research and scholarship.
