CPC Research Projects

At the forefront of the Carolina Population Center's mission is to conduct high quality population research. Research projects are designed and led by CPC Fellows and often are interdisciplinary in nature, involving faculty from the social sciences and the health sciences on the same project. Interview clip: Rindfuss explains the interdisciplinary nature of the Center

Research projects can have many descriptors: funding level, duration, geographic coverage, scope of disciplines, and number of subjects, to name a few. The Center's portfolio has included small and large projects, as well as a number of projects that are longitudinal in nature, and that produce robust datasets. They have had sufficient funding to encourage development of sub-projects that capitalize on the project's activities and data.

CPC has also nurtured projects that are smaller in scope and are often more targeted in their findings. Sometimes, these projects' findings yield a greater interest in a burgeoning population topic, which may spur interest for subsequent research. Interview clip: Rindfuss talks about how large, longitudinal projects and smaller projects contribute to the environment at CPC. 

Over the years, CPC has witnessed and has been involved in the broadening of what is considered population research. Even into the 1980s, breastfeeding was not considered relevant as a topic of population research. CPC projects continue to study fertility, mortality, and migration, as well as issues involving nutrition, religion, aging, land use, and the role of media. In 2006, CPC had two NIH-funded Roadmap Initiatives that encouraged multidisciplinary teams to investigate a complex research problem.

Below is a list of the research projects conducted by CPC with a funding level of more than $20,000.