Signature Programs

Systems for Action (S4A) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that aims to discover and apply new evidence about ways of aligning the delivery and financing systems that support a Culture of Health.  From its inception, RWJF has been driven by a continuous cycle of research, evaluation and learning. RWJF continues its commitment to developing the evidence base by establishing four signature research programs - Evidence for Action, Health Data for Action, and Policies for Action. Together, these programs examine the factors necessary to build a Culture of Health by supporting the generation and dissemination of evidence about what works to improve population health and health equity.

Evidence for Action (E4A) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the Center for Health and Community at the University of California, San Francisco. Evidence for Action funding is dedicated for research projects evaluating the health outcomes of interventions. Specifically, they fund rigorous research designed to assess the causal impact(s) of programs or policies on health outcomes or of behaviors or other factors that are well-established determinants of health.

Health Data For Action (HD4A) is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It equips researchers with valuable data—information that can help them better answer questions that build a Culture of Health. HD4A aims to reduce the barriers often faced by researchers who want to access rich data by serving as a conduit between data owners and interested researchers. Through each HD4A funding opportunity, RWJF will make data from unique data owners available to researchers.

Policies for Action (P4A) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) based at the Urban Institute. The program explores how policies, laws, and other regulatory tools can support RWJF’s mission to build a Culture of Health as they are put into practice in the public and private sectors.

Health Equity Scholars for Action (HES4A) exists to challenge biases and outdated conventions in research and academia by supporting early-career researchers from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Through funding, mentorship, coaching—and access to a broad community of people who understand their lived experiences—scholars will create a body of actionable evidence that mitigates the root causes of health inequities in the United States, recognizing that those inequities are strongly linked with structural and systemic racism and other forms of oppression.