Abstract

Strategies for the Sustainability of Stat Labs: A Case Study of Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis, Lahore College for Women University Lahore, Pakistan (LISA-LCWU)
Asifa Kamal (Presenter)
Lahore College for Women University, Lahore.
Abstract
Sustainable development in any area of life needs support from Statistics and data science that contribute potentially to expedite data driven development. Statistics is multidisciplinary in nature and collaboration of Statistics in various discipline is part and parcel of it. Understanding the importance of collaboration in Statistics, LISA 2020 established network of 35 Statistics and data science collaboration laboratories in developing countries that serve as engines for development. Survival of this network is associated with sustainability of individual labs. Stats lab is sustainable if it can attract domain experts and also help to train new generation of effective collaborators (statisticians and data scientists) who can transform evidence into action within and outside their university. Gap between domain experts and collaborators and demotivation of collaborators were identified as potential hindrance on the sustainability path of LISA-LCWU. Multiple strategies (experiments) have been tried to put LISA-LCWU on the sustainable path. Some were already used on limited scale and it was tried to extend and reinforce those on large scale. It included increasing visibility, to attract more volunteer collaborators, allocation of office space, charging of token fee to trainees and domain experts requiring collaboration, Letter of Intent (LoI) between department of Statistics, LCWU and department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado Boulder. Timeline for experiment was from 1st January, 2022 to 31st March 2022. Objective of current study is to assess the effect of four wheels of sustainability introduced (Enhanced Visibility, Office Space, Collaborators and Letter of Intent) to drive stats lab (LISA-LCWU) on sustainable track.
Webpage/Newsletter/social media, proper office, increased number of collaborators and LoI with CU Boulder, USA and LCWU has placed LISA-LCWU on sustainable path by establishing positive reputation in the institute and sharing work burden but it still needs fuel in the form of funds generation (self-reliance) to get consistency in its pace.