According to a National Research Council study, Federal support for child maltreatment research is currently divided among 28 separate agencies or offices in five Federal departments. With one exception, however, most of these agencies fund research on abuse or neglect in the context of other program priorities, such as maternal and child health, substance abuse, criminal justice, or mental health. The exception is the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN); however, only a proportion of a small and declining pool of funds is available through NCCAN for research on child maltreatment. There has been, therefore, a dramatic decrease in funding for child maltreatment research during a period when the responsibility for Federal support in this area has been increasingly assumed by NCCAN, in which NCCAN's mission has been progressively expanded by Congress to encompass more diverse aspects of child maltreatment study. In addition to inadequate funding for research, other problems have undermined efforts to generate new knowledge about child abuse and neglect. These include broad concerns about the need for multidisciplinary integration, the coordination of research among various public and private agencies, and problems in the administration of research funding within NCCAN. Many of these problems have arisen because of NCCAN's lack of a long tradition of research on social problems with complex etiological, preventive, and treatment dimensions. The National Research Council panel and other critics have recommended a reorganization of Federal authority for child maltreatment research, with an agency having an established research tradition assuming lead responsibility for research on child abuse and neglect. This article also suggests new research initiatives. 20 references