This award funds the establishment of a Research Data Center (RDC) at the University of Washington. RDCs offer researchers secure access to data collected by the Census Bureau and other participating government agencies. The centers meet all physical and computer security requirements for access to confidential data and they allow researchers to use Census Bureau data files to study relationships between social, economic, environmental, and health process and outcomes in a unique way.
This center is the first center in the Pacific Northwest and joins a network of 12 other RDCs located in Washington DC, Boston, Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Los Angeles, North Carolina, Chicago, New York, Texas, and Atlanta. This RDC will be used by researchers from a variety of institutions; besides the University of Washington, other users will come from Washington State University, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Portland State University. All research projects conducted at the center will go through a review process to protect data confidentiality. Researchers using the center include economists, sociologists, statisticians, health scientists, and civil engineers.
The center will provide new facilities for graduate student training and will lead to new collaborations between university researchers, private foundations in the Seattle area, and local governments.
