The mission of the Experimental Design and Biostatistics Core is threefold: 1) to provide consulting and research support services to four projects included in the present proposal; 2) to stimulate and facilitate the development of new caries research projects; and 3) to provide clinical faculty and 'basic scientists' in the College of Dentistry with continuing education in research methodology and statistics. The Core will bring together a team of three senior statisticians who have extensive experience in developing and implementing funded studies. By virtue of their experience in all phases of the research process, the Core Statisticians are prepared to offer a more comprehensive array of support services than are usually provided by a statistical consulting unit, including help with writing grant proposals. Assistance will be available from the earliest stages of problem formulation through final interpretation and publication of results. The inclusion of a Data Manager/Programmer and data entry clerks will also enable the Core to provide all the data processing and analysis services that SCRC projects will require. In addition to its research support services, the Core will implement an educational program aimed particularly at junior faculty members, on whom the future of caries research rests. This Faculty Development Program will involve clinicians, basic scientists, and statisticians in reciprocal educational experiences, which will serve to foster collaborative relationships as well as to provide training in statistics, research design, and computer data analysis. Most of the proposed Core's staff is already organized as a Core unit serving two on-going center projects, so the services of the proposed Core will be integrated with the latter. Such integration will be accomplished at relatively low cost, but yield a much more effective Core unit than would be possible to attain within either one of these Centers.
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