Scientific/Technical Core

The Scientific and Technical Core (SC) aims to catalyze innovative, impactful research in population health and, in doing so, increase affiliates’ competitiveness for external funding at all career stages, but in particular for junior scholars. The SC achieves this goal by providing access to state-of-the-art infrastructure, training, and consultation. Infrastructure involves access to core computing services (e.g. software, REDCap for surveys), custom-build architectures to meet needs expressed by multiple affiliates (e.g. secure postgres database servers), access to high performance/distributed computing, and support for the Northwest Federal Statistical Research Data Center and The UW Data Collaborative, which provides access to innovative, sensitive data in a virtual environment. The SC also maintains modern laboratory facilities for biodemography research and plans to substantially expand capacity as part of this renewal. Training consists of workshops made available to the broader community via Zoom and CSDE’s YouTube channel. Expert consultation is available in (i) data management, security and reproducibility, (ii) statistical demography, (iii) biodemography, and (iv) spatial demography, with a proposal in this renewal to substantially expand expertise in computational demography and survey methodology, while further deepening strength in biodemography. The SC also coordinates with the Development Core (DC) to ensure support and expertise match with ongoing DC programs, particularly for junior affiliates.