IRIS was recently awarded a $1 million, 3-year grant by the National Science Foundation to train early- and mid-career social scientists in the use of a broad range of administrative data for research and proposal development. The first workshops will take place in Summer 2020.
This program will equip researchers of various skill levels to work with large-scale, privacy-protected data in restricted access environments, and will help them eventually submit funding proposals based on the use of such datasets.
A short course for scientists with established quantitative skills will include sessions hosted by experienced researchers on the challenges of submitting grants based on large, restricted datasets.
A longer course for less-experienced researchers will include instruction on tools such as relational databases, Python, and network and text analysis before development of proposed grant submissions in consultation with IRIS technical staff.
The ultimate result will be a larger and more diverse scientific community better able to take advantage of recent improvements in data and technology to support new research directions.