PPRI has the resources to conduct a wide range of policy analysis for legislators, government agencies, special interest groups, and others involved in making public policy. PPRI can access a variety of methodologies and approaches to studying applied policy questions. The Program Director can draw upon the talents of chemists, economists, education specialists, engineers, physicians, physicists, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and other experts in appropriate fields.

Virtually all of PPRI's projects directly or indirectly involve policy issues or their application. For example, data collected in a series of drug and alcohol surveys (e.g., of the general population, TDC inmates, juvenile offenders, and elementary and secondary school students) guide the formulation of substance use policy in the legislature and key state agencies. Evaluation research focusing on the Job Training Partnership Act program and the Maternal and Infant Health Improvement Act have been important in the legislative process, as well. Various surveys completed at PPRI (Texas Poll, the surveys for the Texas Low-Level Waste Disposal, the DWI survey, Tactics and Technologies for INDAR, etc.) are frequently used to guide immediate policy decisions. The Institute was also called upon to provide white paper analyses of issues such as the efficacy of prevention in substance abuse and drug free school zones.

The purpose of the Public Health Policy program is to facilitate the administration and delivery of public health services through the application of scientific research techniques. Strengths of the program include policy relevant research design, data analysis, and program evaluation. The Public Health Policy Program has served as a contract research united and consultant to several state and national policy making agencies.

The majority of work to data has occurred in the area of maternal and child health, focusing largely on improving access to prenatal services for low-income women. Projects have ranged from mult-state survey efforts to determine unmet needs for prenatal services, to detailed evaluations of new, innovative prenatal care delivery approaches. Current studies are investigating health promotion techniques and risk factor surveillance. A statewide in-person survey of immunization status of children from birth to age two was conducted in 1994 for the Texas Department of Health. Institute staff also published a book through the American Public Health Association entitled A Pound of Prevention: The Case for Universal Access to Maternity Care in the U.S.

The Innovation and Technology Transfer program at PPRI was created to coordinate various PPRI projects that focus on innovation and dissemination. The linkage between the original creator of an innovation and potential adopters is often more the province of the social scientist than the physical scientist. It is this linkage that the Innovation and Technology Transfer Program provides.

A wide range of substantive areas are relevant to the study of Technology Transfer. In addition to the obvious relationship between the physical sciences and high technology (such as bio-technology and its applications in medicine and industrial engineering), social conditions such as education, criminal justice, and public health affect technology transfer and are affected by it. PPRI staff have conducted studies of factors influencing the ability to replicate innovation in new sites. Other projects have focused on attitudes toward science and technology, factors that influence those attitudes, and the changes in these attitudes, over time.

PPRI believes that this area for research is important because of its tremendous social and economic implications, particularly, of the future of Texas. PPRI serves as local evaluator for the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their Industry-University Cooperative Program. With assistance from PPRI staff, Texas A&M University has two of these innovative research centers currently in operation. Most recently, PPRI staff were asked to spend a year in Washington, D.C., facilitating the establishment of a new replication/dissemination initiative in the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

PPRI's Education Policy Analysis program was established to assess the impact of alternative educational policies at the federal, state, and local levels. A second objective was to provide technical assistance to state and local officials for implementing these educational policies. The Education Policy Analysis Program offers both research and consulting services in the areas of policy assessment and implementation.

Texas policymakers are faced with a diverse set of special student needs in a climate of scarce resources. Consequently, the need for decisions based on a thorough assessment of federal and state educational policies is great. In response, a recent project examined the issue of educational equity for special student populations (e.g., bilingual, special education students, neglected and delinquent students). A second study addressed issues in the implementation and finance of school reform to raise academic achievement. PPRI is currently working with several school districts on issues ranging from health education to parental participation in their children's education.

The Substance Abuse Prevention Policy program is designed to strengthen research, planning, and delivery of substance abuse services. Since its inception in 1987, the program has implemented a number of research projects to estimate the nature and extent of the drug and alcohol problem within the general population, as well as key sub-groups. The drug and alcohol survey program, described under the Survey Research Program discussed above, provides current data that schools use to target prevention resources effectively. Other populations for which incidence and prevalence data have been collected include prisoners, juvenile offenders, postpartum women, and the general population. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) has progressively relied upon PPRI to gather information on adult and youth use of drugs and alcohol. In addition, we have conducted biennual surveys on gambling for TCADA, which, like the AOD surveys, serve to monitor the prevalence and distribution of addictive behaviors.

PPRI has taken a leadership role in evaluating the efficiency of comprehensive, community-based interventions for drug and alcohol prevention. PPRI was instrumental in writing the grant for a five-year $1.4 million Brazos County Community Prevention Coalition funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). In another major current initiative, the Substance Abuse Policy Program was awarded a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to establish Project BELONG. This innovative program has provided training and supervision for college student mentors who work closely with at-risk students over an extended period of time.

In terms of reducing the supply of illegal substances, the Substance Abuse Policy Program is affiliated with the Institute for National Drug Abatement Research (INDAR), a unit within the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEES). INDAR is a federally funded test-bed for research on engineering hardware aimed at drug interdiction activity. PPRI provides policy and social science capabilities for INDAR. For example, PPRI conducted a national needs assessment of the engineering hardware requirements of law enforcement personnel, which was the basis of two invitations to meet with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in Washington.