DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Washington proposes to establish a Center for the Demography and Economics of Aging at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that will conduct high-quality cutting edge research into key themes related to aging, longevity, and health while contributing to the training and career development Of upcoming scientists, strengthening international networking opportunities, and providing key resources to disseminate this information to a wide variety of audiences. Building on IHME's position as the leader of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) enterprise, this Center will leverage the data, results and vast network of collaborators of the GBD in order to support new research opportunities to identify the social, economic and behavioral determinants of health outcomes; to explore the relationships between expenditures and disease burdens; and to provide comparative and in-depth analysis of interesting GBD results, including those at the subnational and international levels. The Center will have four Cores: an administrative Core, a program development Core, a networking Core, and a dissemination Core. The administrative Core will provide the Center with strategic vision that synergizes Center functions with the activities of th GBD study and will provide the leadership and administrative support for the oversight and evaluation of Center functions, including pilot studies. The program development Core will financially support investigators and projects that seek to initiate and grow research programs that leverage existing GBD data with new methods, statistical approaches, data resources, and lines of thinking to rigorously test and apply the GBD resources to specific themes related to aging, longevity and health. The networking Core will provide exchange opportunities for visiting scholars from outside institutions who are interested in the trends and determinants of health aging and would like to serve as a liaison between their home institution, the Center, and the GBD network of international collaborators. The dissemination Core will provide open access to new databases and data visualization tools that will enable outside researchers, decision makers, and other key stakeholders to utilize, critique, and manipulate the data and results of the GBD and related Center activities.

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The University of Washington Center for the Demography and Economics of Aging promotes research on the trends, determinants and impact of health aging, longevity, and disease and injury burden among older adults at the subnational and international level. The Center will launch new lines of multidisciplinary research, develop new data-related resources, cultivate new collaborations, and launch a new generation of lead academic investigators situated at the intersection of health metrics, economics and social sciences.