Scientific/Technical Core

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SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CORE: SUMMARY The objective of the Scientific and Technical Core (STC) is to advance the overarching objective of this P2C proposal - to design, create, and use new data to advance population science - by enhancing methods used for all three activities, and by providing technical support and guidance for computing. The STC will provide support across a range of activities to both junior and established affiliates of the Population Studies Center (PSC) at the University of Michigan (U-M), and to researchers from other institutions, enhancing their productivity, increasing the scientific impact of their work, and facilitating innovative, collaborative population science. The STC will provide enhanced, individualized STC consulting that advises on data management and analysis problems, while also providing access to state-of-the art methodological tools. If more extensive project assistance is needed, STC staff data scientists and statisticians can also provide paid research support for those with external funding, subsidizing a portion of their salary and effectively leveraging P2C funds that support only a portion of their time. We will expand this popular STC consulting service by establishing a six- member Scientific Advisory Committee (STC-SAC) of experts in new sources of population data and advanced statistical and data science techniques. STC consulting and the STC-SAC will also link PSC affiliates with other major methodological programs at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) that will enhance the innovation of the methodological and substantive contributions affiliates make to PSC’s Primary Research Areas (PRAs). The STC will consult on improving and fielding innovative and large-scale surveys, analyzing big data and complex sample survey data; linking administrative and organic data; designing and implementing experimental and quasi-experimental studies; collecting and analyzing biosocial and genetic data; designing adaptive interventions for improving population health; collecting and analyzing qualitative and ethnographic data; and working with restricted data. The STC will also guide and support access to university-level high- performance computing resources and restricted data enclaves. The STC will continue to organize hands-on workshops instructed by internal and external experts on state-of-the-art methods topics. These workshops and their archived materials will be available to researchers at U-M and beyond. Finally, the STC will continue to provide small grant support for PSC affiliates to develop and implement new research methods, and funding for junior scientists to obtain necessary storage and computing resources. These methodology-related activities form the backbone of our approach to increasing the scientific innovation and impact of PSC affiliates’ research and the success of affiliates’ grant proposals. These shared resources could not be efficiently supported by any single affiliate and will additionally be a public good for researchers beyond U-M.