Program Description

This grant program awards stipends to graduate students to conduct research on ways to improve the disability determination process for SSA’s two disability programs – Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).  The application processes for SSI and SSDI are complex, and members of the public with health problems and economic hardships often find it difficult to navigate this process.  PRI hopes to improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of disability determination processes by facilitating innovative research through stipends to a broad spectrum of graduate students and by allowing those students to access technical information on SSA disability program operations from disability experts.  In exchange, PRI expects students to produce a thesis or written product by June 30, 2014.

The program is directed by Policy Research, Inc. (PRI) of Delmar, NY, and is 100% funded through a $300,000 grant from the Social Security Administration (SSA) (#IDD11000001).

Amount and Disbursement of Award

Students will receive a stipend of $10,000 for the one-year program (stipends may be subject to tax withholding).  The stipend may be added to other financial support the graduate student receives from his or her university/research organization. The stipend is not provided as a condition of employment either with the Federal Government or PRI.

Payments will be disbursed directly to awardees in two installments: (1) after submission and approval of research paper work plan (4-6 weeks following notification of the award) and (2) upon completion of the final research product and other deliverables as specified below. 

Stipend payments are subject to the availability of funds. This cycle of stipends will use grant funds from the third year of funding, which we anticipate will be awarded by September 2013. At this time, we expect continuation of the grant, however, continuation is not guaranteed. 

Deliverables

Award recipients are expected to: participate in a welcome teleconference with other recipients, PRI, and SSA soon after the award; respond in a timely and complete fashion to comments and suggestions from PRI; and adhere to the schedule of deliverables below. Award recipients will be required to submit the following to PRI:

1.     A detailed work plan indicating objectives, activities, and timeframes (4-6 weeks after notification of award)

2.     IRB letter of approval. If applicable, data sets from SSA will not be released to you until PRI has received a copy of your IRB approval letter.

3.     Quarterly progress reports briefly summarizing status of research activities, challenges encountered, and next steps.

4.     Draft research product with all the main sections complete by 5:00pm (EDT) on May 12, 2014.

5.     Final written research product by 5:00pm (EDT) on June 30, 2014.

Please click here for suggested research topics.

Click here for a printable version of the Request for Applications (RFA)