Notre Dame launches population analytics initiative
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The University of Notre Dame has launched a data-focused population research initiative that aims to examine societal issues such as poverty and family instability while also attracting new faculty to aid in the effort.
Called Notre Dame Population Analytics, or ND Pop, the initiative will create a network of researchers on campus while providing datasets, staff and research associates to support their work. The university said among the issues ND Pop will examine are poverty, rising inequality, declining health in the United States, family instability and falling religious participation.
The effort will be led by economics professor William Evans, co-founder of the university’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities.
“Many of the problems facing the U.S. and other nations are demographic issues—the aging of the population, declining fertility, heavy concentration of the opioid crisis in at-risk populations and disparities in education outcomes across groups,” Evans said in a news release. “Driven by its Catholic mission, Notre Dame is uniquely positioned to provide a voice on these key issues.”
The endeavor is a joint effort of the university’s broader Poverty Initiative and its College of Arts & Letters. Other partners include Notre Dame Research, the Center for Research Computing and the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society, which will help ND Pop establish a federal statistical research data center, which provides secure access to sensitive data.
“Notre Dame has long been a driving force behind some of the most significant research on poverty,” said Jeffrey Rhoads, vice president for research and professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. “Notre Dame Research is proud to partner with ND Pop to further enhance that strength by connecting it with the University’s expanding capabilities in advanced data and computational science.”
With initial funding from the Poverty Initiative, ND Pop already has begun supporting faculty research, the university said. And ND Pop is partnering with the Keough School of Global Affairs to support new faculty positions for researchers examining the link between migration and poverty and plans to attract faculty in other areas of research such as history, health and aging.
“To maximize the potential for ND Pop, we need broader representation of faculty with these skills across the social sciences,” Evans said. “The investments in research infrastructure will not only make current faculty more productive, but they will make Notre Dame an attractive destination for scholars in population analytics.”
Steven Alvarado, an associate professor of sociology, already is working with a predoctoral research assistant to gather information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for a project regarding spatial inequality, the societal advantages and disadvantages of living in different geographical areas. His team also is analyzing data from the Indiana Department of Education for a project that examines the impact on education from the presence of weapons in K-12 schools.
Having access to statistical population data, Alvarado said in the release, is essential to understanding the causes and effects of inequality.
“This is the type of research that Notre Dame can really make its mark on,” Alvarado said. “Through the development and infusion of efforts into expanding a population research science center, it can almost instantaneously elevate the national research profile of not only the social sciences at Notre Dame, but the university as a whole.”