This award provides start-up funding for the establishment of a Research Data Center located in the Texas A&M University Research Park in College Station. A consortium of universities, including Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M University System, the University of Texas at Austin, and Baylor University, will partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to establish and operate the Texas Census Research Data Center (TXCRDC). The TXCRDC will house a secure, state-of-the art computing facility to provide researchers in the surrounding multi-state region access to confidential data files available only through the national network of Census Research Data Centers. By providing access confidential federal data, the TXCRDC will enhance the research capabilities and quality of projects that can be undertaken by researchers in Texas and the surrounding area.
As one of only a dozen such facilities in the nation, the TXCRDC will serve the needs of a broad, interdisciplinary research community for the purposes of conducting a mix of basic science research and policy research. Research projects conducted in the TXCRDC will involve many dozens of researchers drawn from a variety of scientific disciplines. Projects will address a diverse range of topics including, but not limited to the following: business and management policy; health sciences and health policy; immigration, migration and population distribution and change; urban and regional planning; engineering and social impact analysis; planning for hazards and disasters and assessment of hazards impact and recovery; transportation science and transportation planning and policy; and environmental and energy policies. The center also will provide direct benefits to the federal statistical agencies by enhancing the quality and value of their data and statistical systems.
