The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) is seeking your help to develop its research agenda—known as the Research Roadmap—for the next few years.

Why Create a Roadmap?

Throughout its history PD&R has sought to be forward looking and fully engaged with practitioners and researchers in the field of housing and urban development. It is critical that we look ahead not only for the key research opportunities we will highlight for Congress in our annual budget request but also to develop a multi-year agenda that will ensure a robust pipeline of research for years to come.

Road Traveled Thus Far

At the heart of the roadmapping process is an effort to hear from our stakeholders, the offices within HUD and practitioners and researchers across the country. There are two critical questions to consider:

1. What are the questions that will be important to housing and community development over the next five to ten years?
2. Where does PD&R have a comparative advantage in responding to these questions?

Since the release of the original plan in 2013, PD&R has worked to advance a number of the research questions identified in the Research Roadmap and we’ve launched or expanded additional research vehicles to help address more questions. You can stay on top of the latest research news and releases by subscribing to HUD PD&R Updates.

The Road Ahead

PD&R is committed to updating the Research Roadmap on a regular basis. The first major update is currently underway and we welcome all input, but are particularly interested in research questions and ideas that fit in one or more of the following categories:

• Expanding Housing Affordability: includes housing finance and homeownership, subsidized and unsubsidized affordable housing production and preservation, LIHTC, etc.
• Mobility: obstacles to household mobility, best practices to support mobility and the impact of mobility on a broader range of individual and community outcomes.
• Secretarial Priorities: includes broadband, homelessness, fair housing, etc.
• Education: includes workforce training, early childhood development, early education, etc.
• Health: includes aging in place, housing and services, smoke-free housing, etc.
• Energy and Resilience: includes energy-efficiency, resilience planning, disaster response, etc.
• Place-Based Strategies: includes Administration’s place-based initiatives (Promise Zones, Choice Neighborhoods, etc.); public safety, vacant properties, etc.
• Cross-Cutting/Other: includes anything that doesn’t quite fit the other categories.

Stay Connected

There are many ways to share ideas and participate in the Research Roadmap process:

Online:HUDuser.gov/ResearchRoadmap

Discussion Forums:HUDuser.gov/forums/research_roadmap.html

Email:PD&[email protected]       

Social Media:Follow @HUDusernews on Twitter and tag updates with #ResearchRoadmap

In addition, we encourage stakeholders to host brownbag sessions for the Research Roadmap with peers or to incorporate consideration of the Research Roadmap into existing research-oriented events or discussions. You can submit any feedback generated from those events via email or through the discussion forums.