Dear Partner:

What are the critical research questions and policy areas HUD should explore next? The Office of Policy Development and Research is currently seeking your help in answering that question as we develop our research agenda—known as the Research Roadmap—for the next few years.

The Research Roadmap is our strategic research plan. Through extensive stakeholder engagement, the Roadmap identified critical, policy-relevant research questions and helps to guide PD&R research investments. We've been working our way through the current Roadmap and we have a number of excellent research efforts underway. 

We know that PD&R's research program is essential to helping the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development achieve its mission to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality, affordable homes for all. It is critical that we look ahead not only for the key research opportunities we will highlight for Congress in our budget request for FY 2017 (October 2016-September 2017) but also to develop multi-year agenda that will ensure a robust pipeline of research for years to come.

Like the original roadmapping process, we plan to facilitate an inclusive process that provides many opportunities for engagement. For this first phase of engagement, we invite you to join in the conversation in our Research Roadmap Forums on HUDuser.gov. This is a first opportunity to share the research and policy questions, ideas, and project concepts that will feed into the roadmapping process.

We welcome all ideas during this process! To facilitate a useful dialogue, we've organized the proposed work by seven topical categories reflecting near-term priorities rooted in the four strategic goals outlined in HUD's Strategic Plan 2014-2018 and an eighth category to capture projects that don't quite fit a single topic or cut across multiple topics. 

While you do need to register and login to the forum to participate, your feedback will remain anonymous unless you choose to share your name and affiliation in your posted feedback. 

We'll be inviting your participation throughout the Research Roadmap process, but for this first phase, feedback provided by Friday, October 30 will be most useful. We look forward to hearing from you!

Lynn M. Ross, AICP 
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development