Funding Opportunity Number: SSA-ORES-08-1

This announcement is no longer open.

The growing share of older Americans in the population has profound long term effects on Social Security. Social Security’s Board of Trustees projects that the program will be in poor fiscal shape over the long term at currently legislated payroll tax and benefit levels as a result of demographic changes. Through education and research efforts, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is committed to addressing these difficulties and ensuring responsive programs and sustainable solvency. SSA’s research efforts will support informed public discussion and creative thinking that relates the principles of the program to economic and demographic realities and changing needs and preferences of American households.

As authorized under section 1110 of the Social Security Act, SSA announces the solicitation of applications for a cooperative agreement to re-compete a Retirement Research Consortium (RRC). SSA seeks applications in support of the RRC that will continue to serve as a national resource fostering high quality research, communication, and education on matters related to retirement policy. The Consortium may consist of one or more research centers. The Consortium's program purpose is to benefit the public through the following:

(1) Research, evaluation, and data development. SSA expects the RRC to plan, initiate, and maintain a multi-disciplinary research program of high quality that will broadly cover retirement and Social Security program issues. A portion of the research effort can focus on the development of research data sources and providing opportunities to use non-publicly available data that can be accessed at restricted-use data sites, subject to the rules and requirements of the sites.

(2) Dissemination. The RRC will disseminate policy research findings using a variety of media to inform the academic community, policymakers, and the public. (3) Training and education. The RRC will train and provide funding support for graduate students and postgraduates to conduct research on retirement policy related matters.