Washington’s First Census Research Data Center Opens at Georgetown

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April 26, 2017 – Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy yesterday opened the first Research Data Center (RDC) in Washington, a joint project of the U.S. Census Bureau and the school’s Massive Data Institute.
The center provides secure access to qualified researchers at Georgetown and nearby universities and institutions examining a wide range of social and economic issues.
“The Georgetown RDC strengthens and animates Georgetown and the McCourt School’s commitment to world-class, 21st-century research and scholarship,” said Robert Groves, Georgetown's provost and the former director of the U.S. Census Bureau. “We are very pleased to partner with the Census Bureau to provide expanded but secure access to these critical data.”
Studying Critical Issues
The Georgetown RDC is the first Census Research Data Center to open in Washington, D.C. and the 24th RDC in the country.
The university’s J. Bradford Jensen, who helped establish the first university-based RDC at Carnegie Mellon University, will serve as executive director of Georgetown’s RDC.
“The restricted-use microdata provided by Census through the RDC, like the American Community Survey, the Census of Manufacturers, and Current Population Survey, will be an incredibly valuable resource to Georgetown and other qualified researchers,” said Jensen, the McCrane/Shaker Chair in International Business at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. “We hope Georgetown faculty, graduate students and other researchers studying critical issues in economics and workforce issues, health and health care, statistics and demographics will get in touch about how we can work together.”
Accessing Data
Nate Ramsey, lead administrator of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center program at the Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies, will serve as acting administrator of Georgetown’s new center.
RDCs are Census Bureau facilities, housed in partner institutions that meet all the physical and information security requirements for access to governmental restricted-use microdata.
An RDC allows qualified researchers with ...

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