EP PI Survey_Att B-2_Initial Contact Email for Survey Invitation to Participant

Attachment B-2: Initial Contact Email for Survey Invitation to Participant

Principal Investigator Survey for the

Process Evaluation of the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program

(National Institute on Drug Abuse Contract No. HHSN271201000496P (GSA: GS-10F-0381L))

[Date]

Dear Dr. $last name$

As you know from the email you received from staff from the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program, Social & Scientific Systems, Inc. (SSS) on behalf of the National Institutes of Health, will be conducting the Principal Investigator Survey which is an expectation of the funding you have received as a Roadmap Program grantee.

We would like to invite you to take this survey which contributes primary data important to the process evaluation. The results of this survey will document program progress as well as identify mechanisms of communication and collaboration that have had synergistic and transformative effects. Results will be aggregated for all reports or any published material, your responses will not be identified or disclosed. No Personally Identifiable Information will be included or be available to the NIH, NIDA, NIDDK, NIEHS, or any non-SSS Contractor staff for this evaluation.

To provide the most thorough and complete response you may want to consult with other members of your research team. Only one survey response will be submitted from each team.

The survey should take no longer than 20 minutes. We ask that you please complete the survey before [Month, Date], 2011.

How to access the survey:

1. Click on the URL listed below. If clicking the link does not take you to the survey, you may need to copy and paste the URL into your internet browser.

URL: www.xxx/xxx

2. Enter survey logon and password shown below:

Survey logon: xxxxxxx

Password: xxxxxx

3. On the survey entrance page, click the "Start Survey" button.

4. Please answer all questions until you arrive at the end of the survey; you will only be shown those questions which apply to you.

We appreciate your taking this web-based survey as quickly as possible. For more information about the survey or the process evaluation, please see the text below for a description of the process evaluation.

If you have any technical problems with this survey, please contact me by email or at tel: +1.301.628.0217. If you have any questions about participating in this survey, please contact:

Susan J. Griffey, DrPH, BSN, FNP

Vice President and Director, Evaluation Center, Public Health Research Group, SSS

Tel: +1.301.628.0340 or [email protected]

Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,

Tracy Berry, MS, Research Associate

Note: This research was reviewed by the ___ IRB (FWA___) and determined to be exempt from IRB oversight. Social & Scientific Systems, Inc (SSS) is an employee-owned company that has supported public and private sector programs since 1978. Headquartered in Silver Spring, MD, SSS contributes to improving public health around the world.

Your login information is confidential and will not be used to identify your responses or comments. This information is used internally by the system solely to restrict who can take the survey and is destroyed in compliance with NIH records procedures.

Process Evaluation of the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program

The purpose of the process evaluation, a formative evaluation study which is descriptive in nature, is to examine the implementation and progress of the program, up to mid-course in the program. The evaluation findings will report the achievement from the implementation and process of a multiple-component research program, will contribute lessons for developing an innovative program that requires coordination and collaboration across multiple components, will identify the collaboration and synergies of a coordinated data processing and analysis center and four individual reference mapping centers providing validated epigenome reference maps, and describe evidence of global use of the data and research results. It may also contribute lessons for evaluating the process of an NIH Roadmap Program. In addition, the results will provide the counterfactual evidence substantiating why this Roadmap Program was initiated; prior to this Program, epigenomics research was conducted by individual terms of researchers and NIH and other experts identified that the this research paradigm was not producing the scientific research results needed for improvements in population health.

This process evaluation began in mid-2009 and will be completed by November 2011, in time to report on the program at mid-course. The evaluation research is a multi-method design to take advantage of the strengths of both primary and secondary data sources. Although program records and available monitoring and information-systems data will provide documentation to assess what has been accomplished, primary data sources will illuminate how the work has been accomplished. Of particular interest are the patterns of interactions among grantees that facilitate or inhibit a progression toward scientific advances and the structures and processes that have supported integration of disciplines and projects. The web-based survey of principal investigators will expand and explain further the information gained from the secondary document review and data systems analysis. Additional primary information will come from in-depth interviews with nine or fewer PIs. These interviews will be conducted after the PI survey results to explore topics such as collaboration mechanisms for which more information is needed.

3