Summer Workshops

The NHATS/NSOC workshops offer 3-day hands-on virtual learning experiences for advanced graduate students, post-docs, early career faculty, and faculty new to NHATS/NSOC. Workshops are led by NHATS/NSOC investigators and staff, who provide group and individualized guidance to attendees on the initial steps of a research project.

Back to Other Learning Opportunities

Overview

The goal of the workshops is to provide workshop attendees with an overview of the NHATS/NSOC design, how to use researcher materials provided by the study, how to merge files, and the proper application of survey design features (including weights) into analyses.  

The application process is competitive. In 2025, we received over 100 applications and we accepted 14 individuals. Applicants have a higher chance of acceptance with a well-formulated research project that is feasible to carry out with NHATS/NSOC, and who have clearly specified their key outcome(s), predictors, and sample of interest. The workshop does not teach statistical programming and is not designed for applicants who have never analyzed survey data before. 

Workshop focus

The NHATS workshop will provide users with working knowledge of NHATS and is designed to support researchers with well-formulated research projects focused on older adults, their health and functioning, and related care issues.

The NSOC workshop will provide users with a working knowledge of both NHATS and NSOC. The NSOC workshop is designed to support researchers with well-formulated research projects focused on caregivers or care networks to older adults.

Both workshops will provide participants with hands-on group-based and individual guidance on how to select and merge files to create an analytic sample, how to operationalize an outcome and key predictor of interest, and how to use survey weights and design variables in an analysis.

Requirements

  • Applicants should have some prior experience with survey data and feel comfortable analyzing data with a statistical program (e.g., SAS, STATA, R) on their own. 
  • Graduate students should complete their dissertation proposal defense before applying. 
  • Accepted applicants are required to commit up to four hours before the workshop and three full days during the workshop to NHATS related activities.
  • Applications should propose projects that can be accomplished with NHATS public or sensitive data. At this time, we cannot accommodate projects that require restricted data access (e.g., Medicare/CMS, geography, other data linkage).
  • If you are working with a collaborator on a project (e.g., coauthor, data analyst, student) and they also wish to attend, please indicate that on your application (and submit only one application per project).

Frequently Asked Questions

The 2027 dates for the summer workshop are not final. More information is coming soon.

The workshops will be most helpful to researchers who have clearly defined research questions or specific aims, know the dataset contains the information needed to complete their project, and – for graduate students – have defended their dissertation proposal.

The audit option allows you to attend the overview lectures covering NHATS/NSOC basics and to ask questions at office hours on the last day of each workshop. Lectures cover how to find and use online materials, merging files, choosing an analytic sample and weighting. The audit option is best for researchers who are still familiarizing themselves with NHATS or NSOC, but have a particular research question in mind. Early-stage graduate students are encouraged to audit the workshops. 

The NHATS and NSOC workshops include direct mentorship from NHATS investigators and staff. Participating mentors change from year to year.