Our Mission

The Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC) is a coalition of 28 national non-profit organizations committed to improving the science of disability, independent living, and rehabilitation. The DRRC seeks to maximize the return on the federal investment in disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research and development with the goal of improving the ability of Americans with disabilities to live and function as independently as possible. The coalition plays a leadership role in increasing and leveraging federal resources devoted to disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research.

Our History

The Disability & Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC) was originally created in 2005 as the NCMRR Coalition, supporting efforts to elevate the status of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) at the National Institutes of Health. The founding members of the Coalition, the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AAPM&R), the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), and the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP), recognized that medical rehabilitation research at NIH had stalled at that point in time, and sought to engage the broader disability community in support of efforts to reinvigorate federal disability and rehabilitation research programs at NIH.

In 2008, the Coalition expanded its membership, its mission, and became what is now the DRRC. The DRRC’s new mission was to improve the state of disability, independent living, and rehabilitation science across all federal agencies that fund and support this research and to maximize the government’s return on investment in this research, with the overarching goal of improving the ability of Americans with disabilities to live and function as independently as possible.

In 2016, the DRRC secured a major legislative victory with the enactment of the Enhancing the Stature and Visibility of Medical Rehabilitation Research at the NIH Act, included as part of the bipartisan 21^st Century Cures Act. The legislation built on the recommendations and conclusions of an NIH Blue Ribbon Panel on Medical Rehabilitation Research and mandated greater coordination with the NIH Director’s office of rehabilitation research efforts at NIH, required the updating and issuance of an NIH-Wide Rehabilitation Research Plan and research conferences every five years, and created a unified definition of medical rehabilitation research to ensure consistent tracking across NIH, among other provisions.

Since its founding, the DRRC has grown to represent 25 national organizations dedicated to its mission. The Coalition continues to advocate extensively for the fields of disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research and development, supporting increased federal funding for key research agencies, expanded focus on critical subject matter areas impacting people with disabilities, and inclusion of researchers with disabilities in the scientific workforce as well as individuals with disabilities in the research itself.