The Center for Outcomes Research and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, funded in 1994 and supported through 2003, developed outcomes studies and generated evidence upon which to base effective practice. Since 1994, CORE doctoral and post-doctoral fellows have generated over $11 million in funding. The concept of a scholarship of practice has generated two new international efforts in London and Stockholm to replicate CORE's idea of advancing and documenting the outcomes of practice. Notably, these efforts bring together scholars and practitioners in a common effort.CORE sponsored a series of events at the 2002 AOTA Annual Conference in Miami and a one-day institute at the AOTA Council on Education Program Directors' Meeting in November 2002. CORE and AOTF sponsored a scientific panel on Participatory Action Research at the AOTA Annual Conference in June 2003.

From 1999 to 2007, the AOTF Institute sponsored three interdisciplinary conferences to enable scholarly exploration of the construct of human habit and its role in everyday life. 

The third of these conference, "Habits III," convened in January 2007 and involved eighty-nine scholars representing twelve fields and disciplines. The proceedings of this conference, entitled Habit and Rehabilitation: Promoting Participation, are available through the publisher SLACK, Inc. as the supplement to the fall 2007 issue of OTJR: Occupation, Participation, and Health. 

Task Force on Occupation in Societal Crises, created in 2002 in response to the attack on 9/11, linked occupational therapy perspectives to societal networks that help people manage stress and create a healthy balance through meaningful occupation.