UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Labor Research and Evaluation Center ~$2.5 million
Anticipated Publication: Spring 2018
Anticipated Award Made: Summer 2018

CEO plans to award approximately $2.5 million in grant funds for an initial 3-year budget period for the Labor Research and Evaluation Center (LREC) cooperative agreement, with the potential opportunity for 2 additional years at up to $1 million per year for a total of up to $4.5 million over five years. A LREC cooperative agreement is for a qualified academic institution to undertake a focused research agenda that expands the public's understanding of critical workforce issues and the impacts of employer compliance and workforce development policies and programs on individual workers, firms, industries, and society.The awardee will be expected to (1) plan, initiate, and maintain a research program of high caliber; (2) develop and expand a mentoring program for a diverse corps of emerging scholars/researchers whose career goals focus on related policy, research, and programs; and (3) develop and maintain a dissemination system to share relevant information to a broad audience. When published, the grant announcement will be available here.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced the award of $1.97 million for nine Labor Research and Evaluation Grants to support university-based research of workforce policies and programs. These grants will help to increase awareness and build the capacity of the American people to understand critical issues related to Labor Department programs, the labor force and the American worker. The grants, administered by the department’s Chief Evaluation Office, will fund research and evaluation on a variety of important topics that will provide insight into labor policies and programs for the benefit of the general public and program administrators. More information can be found here.

On November 14, 2016, U.S. Department of Labor announced the selection of Dr. Molly Irwin to lead the Chief Evaluation Office. As the Chief Evaluation Officer, Dr. Irwin is responsible for coordinating the Department's evaluation agenda, working with agencies to design and implement evaluations, and overseeing the data analytics unit. Dr. Irwin, as a career leader, will work to institutionalize the incredible progress the Office has experienced since its inception in 2010. Read more on Dr. Irwin.

On September 7, 2017, the Congressionally-established Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking released their final report. The Commission was charged with examining all aspects of how to increase the availability and use of government data to build evidence and inform program design, while protecting privacy and confidentiality of those data. The final report includes a number of recommendations on (1) how the Federal government can provide the infrastructure for secure access to data, (2) the mechanisms to improve privacy protections and transparency about the uses of data for evidence building, and (3) the institutional capacity to support evidence building. To read the full report, click here.