CSDE Awarded $2.9 million Five-Year Grant by NICHD
Posted: 8/1/2017 (CSDE Awards)
On July 1, the UW’s Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology (CSDE) was awarded $2.9 million for a five-year grant from the Population Dynamics Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). CSDE was one of only three awards granted by NICHD’s Population Dynamics Centers Research Infrastructure Program following a competitive selection process. CSDE received strong scores in all of its core areas, and was recognized for its outstanding science and technical research services and its innovative proposal for initiating and supporting new population science research. This award demonstrates continued Federal support for CSDE since its first, successful application in 2001.
Considering its alignment with UW’s Population Health Initiative—an interdisciplinary effort that seeks to advance the health of people around the world by leveraging capabilities and opportunities at UW and beyond—the award is a particularly exciting opportunity for UW and CSDE. The Population Dynamics Branch of NICHD supports research and training in demography, population health, and reproductive health. In the field of demography, the Branch supports research on the scientific study of human populations, ranging from fertility, to family demography, to the causes and consequences of demographic change. In the area of population health, it supports data collection and research on human health, productivity, behavior, and development at the population level—using methods such as inferential statistics, natural experiments, policy experiments, statistical modeling, and gene-environment interaction studies. In the discipline of reproductive health, the Branch supports behavioral and social science research on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, family planning, and infertility.
Founded in 1947, CSDE’s mission is to provide strategic resources that advance population science and place its affiliates’ research at the forefront of their fields. CSDE’s 95 affiliates advance NICHD’s mission to ensure that every person is born healthy and wanted; that women suffer no harmful effects from reproductive processes; and that everyone is ensured health, productivity, independence, and well-being. With its home within the College of Arts & Sciences, CSDE exemplifies UW’s boundless aspirations with its support of the research and training of population scientists across UW campuses and beyond.
The grant review committee underscored CSDE’s key contributions to population science in its five primary research areas: 1) Demographic Measurement and Methods, 2) Environments and Populations, 3) Health of People and Populations, 4) Migrations and Settlements, and 5) Well-being of Families and Households. Affiliates were recognized for innovative methods and groundbreaking scientific leadership in probabilistic population estimates, statistical demography, biodemography, data science and demographic methods, spatial demography, and the statistics of social networks and infectious disease.
Overall, reviewers were impressed by the Center’s production of high quality population science and accomplished network of affiliates, along with strong support from the University of Washington and partnerships with the School of Public Health, School of Social Work, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, eScience Institute, and urban@uw. For these and other reasons, CSDE’s application was judged to be “exceptionally strong”.