NCCC_OLD170: Research Advances in Agricultural Statistics
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
NCCC_OLD170: Research Advances in Agricultural Statistics
Duration: 10/01/2001 to 09/30/2006
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Statisticians who consult and do research in an Agricultural Experiment Station environment have a unique relationship with the University. Their multi-disciplinary, collaborative role is generally more extensive than that of other faculty within the University and often cuts across several departments or units. Collaboration of statisticians and scientists allow land grant institutions to perform their agricultural research missions more effectively and efficiently than would otherwise be possible. Statisticians at each station tend to specialize in specific areas. This multi-state committee provides a mechanism that brings together statisticians from many stations working in related areas. The resulting exchange of ideas and the sharing of knowledge is of benefit to all committee members and to the institutions they represent.
As State and federal appropriations continue to fall short of levels needed for research, and grants become more competitive, it becomes even more imperative that research dollars go as far as possible. This requires Experiment Station statisticians to keep abreast of the latest statistical research as well as work to develop methodology appropriate to their consulting roles. With the increased availability of high speed computers, many new computationally intensive statistical methods and relevant software have become available.
Never has the charge to remain current in the statistical profession been more challenging. Assessing the utility of the new statistical methods and software is increasingly important. Further, dissemination of the information to agricultural researchers must be made in a timely manner. Thus, it is critical that Station statisticians work cooperatively to determine the best current approaches to common statistical problems and to help guide future directions of statistical research and software development.
In this respect, Experiment Station statisticians can work together to provide more effective assistance to the agricultural researchers of their respective states. This NCR committee can play an extremely important role by serving as a focal point for the development and implementation of sound statistical practice. Thus the NCR-170 committee is a support project, that assists agricultural researchers in other disciplines in their efforts to accomplish the national research priorities. The members of NCR-170 are committed to this goal.
Objectives
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General committee objectives:
- To identify, foster and coordinate cooperative research efforts in statistics among statisticians serving food and agriculture research programs.
- To explore current and anticipated statistical problems in food and agriculture research and seek solutions to these problems.
- To identify, foster and coordinate cooperative research efforts in statistics among statisticians serving food and agriculture research programs.
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Specific objectives to be met through the development and posting of educational materials to our web site, professional talks by committee members, and the delivery of workshops at professional society meetings:
- To improve the statistical methodologies, both design and analysis, used by statisticians and researchers for studies with spatially correlated data.
- To continue addressing concerns associated with the development and implementation of mixed model techniques used by statisticians and researchers.
- To facilitate the rapid transfer of new statistical methodologies and developments to statisticians and researchers, with emphasis on those methodologies associated with correlated data and mixed model techniques.
- To improve the statistical methodologies, both design and analysis, used by statisticians and researchers for studies with spatially correlated data.
Procedures and Activities
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- The NCR-170 committee will continue to focus its efforts on the development of educational materials to promote the implementation of sound statistical practice. Our clientele is agricultural and natural resource research scientists and fellow statisticians. The primary media will be the development of workshop materials accessible through our web site and the delivery of workshops at various professional society meetings. The web site and home page organization and content will be discussed at the first committee meeting. Development of the committee home page will take place following that meeting. It is expected that the web site will contain committee minutes, connections to workshop materials developed by the committee and provide a site for exchange of information/materials of common interest. During the early years of this proposal, the development of educational materials will concentrate on workshop materials on the design and analysis of studies with spatially correlated data. This effort will be followed with an emphasis on the delivery of workshops to professional societies, focusing on spatial variability. There are indications from at least two profession societies of interest in additional mixed model workshops, which we will continue to provide. In addition, it is expected that these activities will help identify research problems, foster interest in solving those problems, and stimulate both individual and cooperative research efforts by members of the committee. </P>
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
See prior section, Expected Outcomes and Impacts.
Organization/Governance
Host institutions are identified and approved by the committee two to three years in advance of the scheduled meeting. At each meeting a chair is elected to serve as chair of the committee through next year's meeting. A secretary is also elected by the committee.
Literature Cited