Abstract

Title: Statistical Collaboration With Domain Expert.
Organizer: Hope Ifeyinwa Mbachu (Imo State University Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria) ifyjoe100@yahoo.com Speakers: Abukari Alhassan (University for Development Studies Tamale, Ghana) a.alhassan@uds.edu.gh; Babalola Bayowa Teniola(Kampala International University, Uganda) teniolababa@gmail.com; Thomas Mawora(Maseno University, kenya) tmawora@maseno.ac.ke Discussant: Olubusoye Elisa Olubusoye (university of Ibadan, Nigeria) busoye2001@yahoo.com Chair: Hope Ifeyinwa Mbachu (Imo State University Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria) ifyjoe100@yahoo.com

Description: Essential skills required for both collaboration and consultation are mostly informal and are rarely taught in the training institutions in developing countries. These critical skills constitute a significant missing gap and a major hindrance to the growth and development of capacity in statistical collaboration. Statistical collaboration with domain expert proposal is an initiative in bridging this gap across higher education institutions/industries in Africa and other parts of the world. Researchers collaborating with statisticians for their inputs are gaining popularity on a daily basis. Several researchers have good expertise in their field, but lack prerequisite statistical knowledge for both methodological and the analysis section in their works. The solution to this is collaboration and creation of synergy between statisticians and domain experts. This IPS session is expected to focus on the skills/techniques for improving statistical collaboration with special focus on domain experts in medicine, agriculture, economics, education, environmental sciences, biological and physical sciences. This session will bring together four speakers/domain experts from four different institutions and countries in Africa to speak about statistical collaboration with domain experts in their respective institutions/countries. Justification: Statistical collaboration is educational, exciting and challenging. The technique provide the means to keep statistical and communication skills sharp and also provides the opportunity to discover different and potentially better ways to explain things. Collaboration between domain experts and industries is becoming increasingly beneficial and brings great rewards that are also distinct in developing countries. Some of the benefits are to avoid duplication, exploit synergies complementary of scientific-technological capabilities, foster communication of public outcomes and boost mobility of labour between public and private sectors. Statistical collaboration is a convenient way to expand your professional network beyond statistics and data science. The growth phenomenon is visible in the global demand for statisticians as well as in the production of statistics graduates. The statistical collaboration is for building capacity to improve informal statistical skills through training and collaboration with domain experts to bridge the gap. The purpose plan is to draw out lessons that are unique and common from different domain experts across the continents, regions, countries and institutions. Focusing in Africa is essential as the gap between the supply and demand is believed to be wider when compared with the rest of the world. This session will be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including prospective applicants, sponsors, governing bodies of institutions, statistical agencies, scholarship awarding individuals and organizations, who will be attending the World Statistics Congress (WSC). Finally statistical collaboration with domain expert discussion and knowledge sharing from the speakers can be helpful to other professions.
Keywords: Statistical collaboration, domain expert, institution, skills, countries.