This application requests NICHD development support for population research at the University of California, Berkeley. The campus' long history of excellence in demographic teaching and research was recently enhanced by the creation of the campus-wide Berkeley Population Center (BPC). The Center is designed to serve as an institutional and intellectual home to the community of population researchers on the Berkeley campus. BPC research affiliates come from a wide range of social science and health science departments, with particular strengths in the thematic areas of population health, labor, family and immigration. BPC researchers are further drawn together by their commitment to developing population theory and innovative methods, as well as collecting and disseminating primary data for use by researchers both within and beyond the Berkeley campus. The Center's goal and stated purpose is to bring together Berkeley population researchers who have been historically isolated by academic department, facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations, spur innovative new projects and support junior faculty and others new to the population field. BPC functions are being organized around cores: an administrative core, computer core and research development core. These will provide support for BPC affiliates by assisting with grant applications and administration, providing hardware and software for data analysis, and awarding pilot grants for interdisciplinary projects. The developmental grant support from NICHD will augment current university support for the BPC, and play a crucial role in helping Berkeley's population research community to further flourish in a vibrant center of intellectual exchange. ? ? Project Relevance: The Berkeley Population Center strives to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation in population research, while providing essential and cost-effective resources in support of the development, conduct, and dissemination of our work. Our center is designed to: 1) enhance the quality and quantity of population research conducted at Berkeley; and 2) develop new research capabilities to advance population research through innovative approaches. Our signature research themes of population health, labor demography, family demography, and immigration each address concerns with population processes, size, and composition. The health of individuals and populations is influenced by social and economic context. As such, the study of population health is best advanced by incorporating the theory, methods and findings from other areas of population research. By bringing together faculty and students from a wide range of academic backgrounds, each with a different perspective on population dynamics, the Berkeley Population Center will help to further understanding of the causes and consequences of population health. The description of the Infrastructure Components is in the """"""""Research Design and Methods"""""""" section of the PHS 398 Research Plan ? ? ?
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