Government policymakers and program managers at the Federal, State, and local levels are under increasing pressure to ensure that their programs are achieving better results at lower cost. In many programs serving vulnerable populations, policymakers and managers lack access to information about what outcomes programs are achieving and to evaluations that can inform policy decisions and strategies for improvement. One barrier is lack of access to key data sets that can reliably measure important outcomes for program participants. To address this problem, the U.S. Census Bureau and Chapin Hall have formed a partnership to demonstrate innovative strategies for linking data across programs and levels of government to advance evidence-based policymaking.
This project, Using Linked Data to Advance Evidence-Based Policymaking: Helping Projects Utilize the U.S. Census Bureau Linkage Infrastructure, is supported by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
This Request for Proposals (RFP) is soliciting research and evaluation pilot studies exploring long-term outcomes of policies and interventions in order to inform public decision makers. We are seeking projects that maximize the capacity of linked administrative data to provide policy-relevant insights on Federal programs using administrative data available at the Census Bureau. In addition to full proposals, we also invite letters of interest for future projects. These are intended to gauge the demand from researchers for linking to Federal data and inform capacity building within the Federal government.
This project is positioned to inform the work of the recently established Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking (Public Law No: 114-140 Evidence-Based Policy Making Act of 2016). The bipartisan Commission is tasked to study the existing data inventory related to Federal policymaking and issue recommendations for making such data integrated and available for program evaluation, policy-relevant research, and cost-benefit analysis. By informing the Commission, the studies supported through this RFP will have the potential to shape the future of the Federal data infrastructure for policy research.
Submissions are due 11:59 p.m. Central Time on September 20, 2016.
Download the RFP
Submit a Full Proposal
Submit a Letter of Interest
Questions about the RFP? Learn more at an upcoming webinar. Watch this page for an announcement of the webinar date and links to register. Please send questions about the RFP or submission process to Leah Gjertson at lgjertson@chapinhall.org.