Overview
The Institute for Population Research (IPR) is a multi-disciplinary research center that nurtures population and health research at The Ohio State University. IPR faculty and graduate student affiliates span six colleges and sixteen departments, and IPR serves as a bridge between behavioral and biomedical scientists at OSU. IPR is supported by an infrastructure grant from the Population Dynamics Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (P2C-HD058484), as well as by internal funds from multiple colleges at OSU.
IPR has four primary research areas: family demography, sexual and reproductive health, health disparities, and adolescent to young adult development. Beyond these four themes, IPR supports research in all facets of population and health, broadly defined, with a particular emphasis on understanding the causes and consequences of inequality across multiple domains.
Activities and services include: seed grant program; rapid response grants; administrative assistance in the submission of applications for external funding; data services (with emphasis on secure/restricted data); travel support for participation in conferences; weekly seminar; and office space. IPR prioritizes investments in multi-disciplinary projects and in junior faculty.
To be added to the IPR email list, please email popcenter@osu.edu. We have two lists: a weekly email that includes reminders about IPR events, other population-related events on- and off-campus, job announcements, and other opportunities in population science; and a monthly email that summarizes upcoming IPR events and opportunities. You may sign up for either or both.
If you are interested in becoming a student, faculty, or postdoctoral affililate of IPR, send a brief summary of your population research interests to IPR Director Sarah Hayford.
Leadership and Staff
Sarah Hayford is Director of IPR, and Kammi Schmeer is Associate Director.
Carol Bitzinger serves as Senior Grants Specialist. Diane Florian is Communications and Events Specialist. Bethany Boettner and Jason Thomas are Research Scientists.
Infrastructure and Services
IPR occupies a 7300 sq ft suite of offices in OSU's Townshend Hall, comprising a dedicated seminar room, several small meeting rooms, offices for faculty affiliates, graduate student suite, and space for hosting research projects including projects requiring special consideration for restricted or sensitive data.
Senior Grants Specialist Carol Bitzinger provides assistance in the submission of proposals for external funding (especially NIH).
Communications and Events Specialist Diane Florian coordinates IPR events, including the seminar series, and disseminates information about affiliate accomplishments.
Research Scientist Beth Boettner provides assistance with the management of restricted data.
Activities
Seminars - Weekly seminars provide a forum for scholars from other universities and OSU faculty to present ongoing research to a multidisciplinary audience.
Seed Grants - IPR annually extends 4-8 seed grants to affiliates for work towards submission of applications for external funding. Priority is given to multi-disciplinary projects and to more junior faculty.
Rapid Response Grants – small grants are available to cover last-minute costs in the construction of an application for external funding.
Workshops– Periodically IPR offers workshops on grantwriting, interdisciplinary research, and technical tools for conducting transparent and reproducible research.
Graduate Students - Graduate students are active participants in all IPR activities, and office space for graduate students is available in the IPR suite. Each fall, IPR organizes a graduate student conference jointly with the population center at Bowling Green State University. In 2015, IPR began offering the Graduate Interdisplinary Specialization in Demography.
History
The Institute for Population Research was established in 2000 as the Initiative in Population Research with the goal of building excellence at Ohio State in population and health research.
IPR has grown enormously in the twenty years since its creation, thanks in part to internal and external grants. An initial five-year R21 infrastructure award from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) was received in 2004. The OSU Targeted Investment in Excellence (TIE) in Population and Health, launched in 2006, supported crucial faculty hires and provided funds for the renovation of IPR’s office suite. In 2009, IPR successfully competed for a five-year $2.2 million NICHD R24 infrastructure award. This grant (P2C-HD058484) was renewed in 2014 for $2.2 million and again in 2019 for $2.7 million.
In 2012, the OSU Faculty Senate approved IPR’s proposal to become a university center, and IPR was renamed Institute for Population Research.
Successive Directors of IPR have been: Daniel Lichter, 2000 – 2005; Randall Olsen, 2005 – 2009; John Casterline, 2009 – 2021; Sarah Hayford, 2021-.
The Ohio Population Consortium
Building on its longstanding ties with the Center for Family and Demographic Research at Bowling Green State University, IPR is joining with CFDR to launch the Ohio Population Consortium.