University of Ottawa celebrates opening of COOL research lab in social statistics

The COOL RDC lab is the only inter-provincial RDC in Canada and the only one of its kind run equally by two universities: the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. It is also supported by Université du Québec en Outaouais. In the past, Ottawa-area researchers had access to these data only if they traveled to RDCs in other cities or made special arrangements with Statistics Canada.

“The COOL RDC will facilitate the access of researchers to detailed Statistics Canada survey data while complying with Canada’s privacy laws,” says RDC Academic Director Saul Schwartz. “We’re excited about getting researchers from all three universities together in one place.”

This new lab will, for example, give researchers access to major longitudinal studies such as the National Population Health Survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, the General Social Survey, the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada and the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics.

“The Research Data Centre is a unique educational support structure. It will facilitate the training of both undergraduate and graduate students in various research approaches dealing with the study of the Canadian community as it relates to associated public policies,” says Lise Dubois, Associate Professor Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Population Health.