Minnesota Population Center

描述（由申请人提供）：明尼苏达人口中心（MPC）是明尼苏达大学人口研究的一个全校范围的跨学科合作机构。该中心有三个主要目标：促进跨学科人口研究人员之间的联系，开发大规模的合作研究项目，并为人口研究提供基础设施。MPC为明尼苏达大学10个学院和21个系的98名教职员工和研究科学家提供服务。作为人口统计数据的领先开发者和传播者，MPC还为全球超过60,000名人口统计研究人员提供更广泛的服务。在过去的五年中，大学在11个学系招收了21名从事人口相关研究的新教师，为MPC提供了一批充满活力和生产力的新一代学者。这刺激了一系列令人兴奋的跨学科人口研究活动，导致围绕各种不同但相互关联的主题的研究活动激增。MPC卓越研究集群分为八个主题领域：大规模人口数据基础设施；工作、家庭和时间；历史人口;教育，劳动，人生历程；获得医疗保健和健康差距；普查及调查方法；结合和性；人口和环境。MPC的标志性活动是开发和支持大规模人口数据基础设施。人口普查委员会处理和传播比任何其他组织更多的可公开获取的人口微观数据；在过去十年中，该中心发布的人口微观数据是美国人口普查局的13倍，该中心发布了美国最全面的人口普查数据汇总和电子人口普查边界文件。MPC数据基础设施通过为动态、比较和多层次分析开辟新的机会，正在改变人口研究的格局。从研究经费的数量和规模、出版物的数量和质量以及对人口研究基础设施的影响来看，MPC已成为美国最大、最具影响力的人口研究中心之一。如果没有R24的资助，这些成功是不可能发生的。MPC目前正在寻求继续资助，以巩固这一势头。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) is a University-wide interdisciplinary cooperative for demographic research at the University of Minnesota. The center has three main goals: to foster connections among population researchers across disciplines, to develop large-scale collaborative research projects, and to provide infrastructure for demographic research. MPC serves 98 faculty members and research scientists from 10 colleges and 21 departments at the University of Minnesota. As a leading developer and disseminator of demographic data, MPC also serves a broader audience of over 60,000 demographic researchers worldwide. During the past five years, the University has recruited 21 new faculty members in 11 departments who are engaged in population-related research, giving MPC an energetic and productive new generation of scholars. This has stimulated an exciting array of interdisciplinary population research initiatives, leading to a proliferation of research activity around diverse but interrelated themes. MPC clusters of research excellence fall into eight thematic areas: large-scale demographic data infrastructure; work, family, and time; historical demography; education, labor, and the life course; healthcare access and health disparities; census and survey methodology; unions and sexuality; and population and environment. MPC's signature activity is the development and support of large-scale population data infrastructure. MPC processes and disseminates more publicly-accessible demographic microdata than any other organization; during the past decade, the Center released thirteen times as much population microdata as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Center disseminate the nation's most comprehensive collection of aggregate U.S. Census data and electronic census boundary files. MPC data infrastructure is shifting the landscape of population research by opening new opportunities for dynamic, comparative, and multilevel analyses. Measured by number and size of research grants, number and quality of publications and impact on population research infrastructure, MPC has become one of the largest and most influential population research centers in the nation. These successes could not have occurred without R24 funding. MPC now seeks continued funding to build on this momentum. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This work is directly relevant to the central mission of the NIH as the steward of medical and behavioral research for the nation. MPC research is advancing fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of human health and population dynamics. This basic infrastructure is essential for answering the core questions surrounding family change, population health, and migration that have been identified as the central research agenda for NICHD's Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch.