Services Offered by GIA Core
The Geographic Information Analysis (GIA) Core of the Population Research Institute (PRI) at the Penn State University is one of the few spatial analysis units in the US that is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). While the primary objective of the GIA Core is to assist PRI researchers in incorporating a spatial perspective into their population studies, inquiry about GIA services from other institutes and universities has grown in the past few years.
Who Can Use GIA Services
To address the increasing demand, the PRI now provides GIA services to the population researchers in other NICHD-funded population centers. This includes:
- PRI Research Associates at Penn State (eligible for pilot hours seed grants)
- Social Science Researchers at Penn State (eligible for pilot hours seed grants)
- NIH Population Center Associates Not at Penn State
Service Level Details
The GIA Core services available to external researchers in a NICHD-funded population center can be classified into three levels.
- Basic: The fundamental GIA service includes, but is not limited to, geospatial data management and archiving, geocoding, mapping, nested contextual data construction, and basic exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). Details/Example
- Intermediate: This level of services is comprised of tasks associated with non-nested data construction, research design issues, the use of global positioning systems (GPS) and/or wireless devices, customized programming, and advanced ESDA. Details/Example
- Advanced: The GIA Core provides advice on how to incorporate advanced spatial analysis techniques into population research. The development of advanced spatial analysis in the past two decades has generated numerous innovative methods, such as spatial econometrics, geographically weighted regression, geostatistics, and Bayesian spatial hierarchical modeling. Details/Example
For more, please see Why the GIA Core and Spatial Analysis?
Interested? Please Contact GIA
If you believe that the GIA Core services discussed above may make your research special/spatial, please contact GIA and the GIA Core will reply with further instructions. For more information about the GIA Core and the services it provides, please visit our website: http://www.pop.psu.edu/services/GIA
Please note: All collaborations are subject to IRB approval.