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Proposal Guidelines

The application process for access to data in the FSRDCs is evolving. Currently, Federal statistical agencies each have their own application process and review and approval procedures for providing access to data.

These can be found at the Census Bureau’s Available Data web page.

It is important to contact us early on about your prospective project to help you navigate the process and answer your questions. Final proposals may be submitted on a rolling basis, and are subsequently reviewed by both members of the academic community and government researchers before a final decision by the Census Bureau.

All proposals for conducting research using Census confidential data inside TRDC are reviewed on the basis of five major criteria:

  • Benefits to Census Bureau
  • Scientific Merit
  • Need for Non-Public Data
  • Feasibility
  • Risk of Disclosure

Selected restricted-access data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) can also currently be accessed in the FSRDCs. Proposals to use those data must meet the requirements of those agencies.

The proposal process has two stages: the preliminary proposal and the submission of a final proposal.

Preliminary proposal steps

The preliminary proposal steps are:

  1. Read the RDC research proposal guidelines.
  2. Contact TRDC through our contact form to schedule a meeting. We will go over the brief preliminary proposal that you need to submit through the CES management system.
  3. Create an account in the CES management system.
  4. Log in to the CES account and enter a brief preliminary proposal and a 2-page CV.

Final proposal submission

  1. Work with the RDC Director to develop your final proposal.
  2. When invited by the RDC Administrator, submit your final proposal into the CES system. The final proposal consists of four separate documents in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF):
  • Curriculum vitae of all investigators on the proposed project
  • Abstract of the proposal
  • Project description (full proposal)
  • Statement of benefits to the Census Bureau.

3. Contact the RDC Administrator for an update on your proposal status.

Final proposals may be submitted on a rolling basis through the CES web page in PDF form, and are subsequently reviewed by both members of the academic community and government researchers before a final decision by the Census Bureau.

Documents from the U.S. Census Bureau

 

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The Triangle RDC is a partnership between the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), RTI International (RTI) and the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers.