Funded Research
Population Research Institute
Source: NICHD
Active: 07/05/06 - 06/30/11
Investigator(s):
Nancy Landale
Stephen Matthews
Rukmalie Jayakody
David Johnson
PRI was formed in 1972 and has had continued NICHD infrastructure support since 1991. It is a large and highly multidisciplinary institute, with its 73 tenure-track Research Associates and Affiliates distributed across 17 departments and seven colleges. Recent developments at Penn State, including the formation of the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium and the Survey Research Center, coupled with PRI's new institutional links with the College of Medicine, first-time support from the College of Education, and strengthened ties to the College of Health and Human Development, infuse new energy and resources that will allow PRI to pursue work on three signature themes: interdisciplinary perspectives on family processes and change; interdisciplinary perspectives linking individual, family, and population health over time; and demographic perspectives on inequality and opportunity. Within each theme we identify broad questions which motivate and structure PRI's ambitious research plans for the next five-year cycle. The productivity of PRI researchers and the quality of their work relies on five forward-looking and cost-effective service cores and a Developmental Infrastructure. The Administrative Core provides expert proposal assembly and submission service and post-award administration. The Computer Core provides cutting-edge hardware and software support and high-end computer programming. The Geographic Information Analysis Core provides high quality mapping, visualization, contextual data manipulation and spatial analysis capabilities. The Information Core provides literature search and article retrieval services, and maintains both a demography library and a vast social science data archive. The reorganized Statistics Core provides statistical consulting, organizes informative workshops and seminars, and ensures PRI's currency in statistical software. PRI's Developmental Infrastructure draws on new faculty leadership to provide a seed grant program, working group opportunities, and peer review capabilities, all targeted toward junior faculty.
