Research developments at the Census Bureau

1. Research developments at the Census Bureau Roderick J. Little Associate Director for Research & Methodology and Chief Scientist Bureau of the Census

2. Summary • Director Groves vision for research • Structure and strategic objectives of new Research & Methodology directorate • Outreach to external research community: • NSF/Census Research network • Research Data Centers • Some research priorities

3. Research at the Census Bureau… • … More important to us now than ever before. • Increased demand for data products, questions asked are becoming more complex and hard to measure. • Surveys and censuses are increasingly expensive and challenging to mount. • Research is essential to reconcile these tendencies

4. What is the R&M Directorate?

5. Strategic objectives 1 • Build a Research & Methodology Directorate that fosters innovation and plays a strategic role in Bureau activities • Develop existing R & M members and recruit new talent to be thought leaders in research • Increase peer reviewed research • Provide an environment and resources conducive to high quality research. • Form cross-cutting teams with other Directorates to solve key methodological problems

6. Strategic objectives 2 • Porting research on new products/processes to program areas - especially more methodologically complex products/processes. • Good ideas don’t implement themselves • Assist with the refinement and implementation of innovative ideas arising in the program areas • Need to develop an infrastructure for beta testing and implementing new and better ways of doing things • Collaboration with IT Directorate for computing needs, and other directorates to ensure innovations are understood and carried through

7. Strategic objectives 3 • Establishing more robust collaborations with external researchers and agencies. • Enhance collaborative research between R & M personnel and outside researchers • NSF/Census Research Network • Expanded role for Research Data Centers • Incentivizing internal and external researchers to tackle methodological and subject matter research of high value to the bureau and the broader economic and social measurement communities. • On topics of importance to the Bureau, defined collaboratively with other directorates

8. Strategic objectives 4 • Increasing the statistical literacy of Census Bureau data users • Increased demand for products for small areas (e.g. ACS) • Increased “research” data releases that have higher levels of error, are more model-based • Users need to understand how to interpret these data

9. Synopsis of NCRN • A set of research nodes conducting interdisciplinary research and educational activities on methodological questions of interest and significance to both: • The broad research community, and • The Federal Statistical System, particularly the U.S. Census Bureau. • The initial awards established 2 small and 6 medium-sized research nodes; a later solicitation may permit the establishment of large nodes. • Complementary to but independent of the Census Bureau’s Research Data Centers program.

10. Goals of NCRN • Advance development of innovative methods and models for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of data in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. • Relate fundamental advances in methods development to the problems of the Federal Statistical System, particularly the U.S. Cen10sus Bureau. • Facilitate the collaborative activities of scientists from across multiple disciplines, including the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, the statistical sciences, and the computer sciences. • Develop next generation of researchers in research skills of relevance to the measurement of economic units, households, and persons.

11. 8 proposals funded in FY 2011 "Data Integration, Online Data Collection, and Privacy Protection for Census 2020". PI: Fienberg, Carnegie-Mellon. "Integrated Research Support, Training and Data Documentation". PI:Abowd, Cornell. "Enhancing Federal Agencies' Data Dissemination Capabilities". PI: Reiter, Duke. "Linking Surveys to the World – Administrative Data, the Web, and Beyond". PI: Shapiro, Michigan. "Improving the Interpretability and Usability of the American Community Survey through Hierarchical MultiscaleSpatio–Temporal Statistical Models". PI:Holan, Missouri. "Reducing Error in Computerized Survey Data Collection". PI: McCutcheon, Nebraska. "Census Bureau Data Programs as Statistical Decision Problems". PI: Spencer, Northwesern. "Improving the Connection between the Spatial and the Survey Sciences". PI:Spielman, Colorado.

12. R and M Research Topics • Census 2020 design • Multiple mode data collection: Reducing survey costs without sacrificing quality • Disclosure avoidance • Record Linkage, ad records • Modeling to provide more frequent, more granular estimates • Innovative data products (combining current data)

13. Some Challenges • Recruit the best researchers • Census Bureau employees, and outside researchers on grants and contracts and as consultants • Citizenship issues, competitive salaries, creating an exciting research environment • Value peer-reviewed publication, visibility in the wider research community • Promoting and fostering research excellence in a large, production-oriented, bureaucratic institution • Build better links between research and production • Institutionalizing research excellence

14. We need your help! • Let people know that the Census Bureau has a new research directorate with exciting plans • Give us your ideas • ADRM wants to work with colleagues to develop new and improved Census data products. • We value your advice and constructive criticism!