Emily Roberts, assistant professor of biostatistics in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, has been selected by the Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy (IPHPRP) to establish a new collaboratory dedicated to advancing causal inference research.

A collaboratory is a creative group process designed to solve complex problems and connect collaborators from different backgrounds and disciplines to expand the scope, scale, and impact of critical public health research. 

Robert’s multidisciplinary team will focus on causal inference, which relates to the process of determining cause-and-effect relationships, usually from observational or complex data.  Causal inference is important for evidence-based decision-making in fields such as medicine, public health, and policy. However, challenges remain in understanding cause-effect relationships behind these decisions, and in improving methods used to do so.

The Causal Inference Collaborative Group at the University of Iowa aims to promote methodological advancements, serve as a central resource for researchers, provide training, and assist in the preparation of grants that evaluate causal effects, especially those addressing public health challenges.

“Our goal is to build upon existing strengths of the college through a community of collaboration and advance important causal inference research,” says Roberts. “By joining researchers with diverse expertise, we hope to foster causal reasoning across fields and ultimately improve the quality of methodology and insights that can be gathered from data. We are very excited to bring together this interdisciplinary group and hope any interested individuals will join us in our events (workshops, meetings, and working groups) throughout the year.”

In addition to Roberts, the collaboratory team members include:

• Ryan Cho, Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health,
• Jonathan Platt, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health,
• Kai Wang, Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, and
• Nathan Wikle, Department of Statistics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The team also includes University of Iowa researchers and experts from the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center, Health Effectiveness Research Center, Department of Health Management and Policy, Department of OEH, and Department of Community and Behavioral Health.

Read more about the IPHPRP collaboratories and their work.