The UC Irvine Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy has earned full campus designation as an Organized Research Unit. This designation, the result of a multi-year application process, provides the center with a supportive infrastructure for its interdisciplinary research focus on socioeconomic factors that directly impact inequality.
“CPIP’s research focus is timely and of fundamental importance to society as we confront issues of an aging population, fertility decline, high-profile debates over immigration and income inequality and appropriate policy responses, and more. Being designated an ORU guarantees a baseline of support for our mission and positions us to increase the scope and impact of our activities,” says David Neumark, center co-director and Distinguished Professor of economics in the School of Social Sciences.
Additional co-directors include Tim A. Bruckner, professor and Chancellor’s fellow of health, society & behavior in the Wen Health, and Jade Jenkins, associate professor in the School of Education.
“Gaps in the economic and educational opportunities of children and adults in the top and bottom quintiles of the family income distribution have widened dramatically in past decades in both the U.S. and many other countries. And inequality across countries continues to drive global issues such as migration,” says Bruckner. “Moreover, poverty is often persistent both within and across countries.”
Established in late 2019 with 26 affiliates, the center has grown to include 63 faculty from seven schools (social sciences, social ecology, public health, education, medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, and business) and 16 departments. These diverse faculty affiliates study a broad-ranging set of issues related to population and inequality, with a sharp focus on policy responses. Efforts are organized among six primary research areas, although CPIP faculty interests extend to many others:
- Child and adolescent development
- Maternal and infant health
- Criminal legal contact and the life course
- Migration
- Institutions and human capital
- Population data science and methodology
CPIP has positioned itself to be the core center for population sciences at UCI, says Neumark, drawing from the foundation of three previous centers – the Center for Research on Immigration, Center for Demographic and Social Analysis, and Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute – that have since combined efforts under the auspices of the newly designated ORU.
Representation among the center’s leadership team and supplementary support from all three schools – social sciences, public health, and education – strategically links faculty studying health, inequality, and public policy to create science-driven solutions to social problems.
“The center promotes research and collaboration among UCI faculty that draws on expertise and research innovation that can bring new and interdisciplinary perspectives to fundamental population-related problems of inequality and public policy,” says Jenkins. “Strengthening these interdisciplinary linkages is essential, given the need to incorporate research from multiple disciplines to fully understand the issues that are at the core of CPIP’s research agenda.”
Primary efforts have focused on helping affiliates write successful grant applications, resulting in more than $45,000,000 in external research funding awarded over the center’s short five-year history. More than 50% of the center’s faculty have earned external funding. CPIP support for faculty consists largely of small grants for preliminary research to develop larger extramural proposals pursuing the center’s theme of the causes and consequences of socioeconomic inequality and how policymakers should respond.
In addition, CPIP fosters a lively interdisciplinary intellectual center. CPIP hosts a monthly seminar series with external speakers, and an internal workshop to help its affiliates develop proposals and publications. In May 2023, CPIP created and hosted the inaugural All-UC Demography Conference which brought to UCI 75 registered presenters and attendees representing eight UC campuses. Other UC population studies centers have now committed to organize and annually host, beginning with UCLA in 2024 to be followed by UC Santa Barbara.
In order to communicate research findings to the policy community, many CPIP affiliates have written research or policy briefs, or delivered briefings, for an array of policymakers and audiences, and faculty regularly write op-eds or serve as expert sources for media writing on critical population sciences issues. Externally, the center has hosted three large-scale webinars for the public, including addressing early policy issues relating to the pandemic.
“Our plans are to increase research and research support and become a nationally-prominent population studies center with strength across the social sciences, public health, and public policy. The university’s recognition of our accomplishments reflected in becoming an ORU are central to these goals,” says Neumark.
