About LISA 2020
Our plan, called “LISA 2020”, was to create a network of 20 such statistical collaboration laboratories in developing countries by 2020.
The LISA 2020 Program trains statisticians from developing countries to become collaborative statisticians and supports them in the creation of statistical collaboration laboratories — “stat labs” — at their home institutions. These stat labs train the next generation of collaborative statisticians to apply statistics to solve real-world problems; provide research infrastructure to help researchers, government officials, and local industries and NGOs apply statistical thinking to solve problems and make better decisions; and teach short courses and workshops to improve statistics capacity and literacy. The program’s goal was to create a network of 20 such stat labs in developing countries by 2020. The full list of stat labs is available here.
Each of these newly created laboratories will foster education in statistics and will promote the proper application of statistics to solve real-world problems. With a strong support network, just one statistician trained to communicate and collaborate with non-statisticians can enable and accelerate 20 or more research projects per year. Each research project can impact hundreds or thousands of people. At LISA, we will unlock the collaborative potential of a technically trained statistician, who in turn will unlock the research potential of her collaborators and teach other statisticians to do likewise. These research collaborators, now with the power of statistical thinking open to them, will be key to improving human welfare worldwide.
In August 2019, LISA 2020 held its 2nd LISA 2020 Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia prior to and associated with the International Statistical Institute's 62nd World Statistics Congress (WSC). The third LISA 2020 Symposium is being held online with regional face-to-face events from October 2020 to May 2021.
LISA 2020 is implemented by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (LISA) in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Accelerating Local Potential (ALP) Program under Cooperative Agreement Number: 7200AA18CA00022.
LISA 2020 is led by Dr. Eric Vance (Eric.Vance@colorado.edu) at the University of Colorado Boulder's Department of Applied Mathematics.