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This proposal addresses the serious lack of capacity in statistics in the UK, identified by the recent EPSRC International Review of Mathematics. Whilst commending the current and historical research strength of UK statistics, their report pointed to the growing shortage of academic statisticians, to the perilous age-profile of many UK statistics groups threatening the future sustainability of the discipline, and to the widening gulf between the declining supply of trained statisticians and the increasing demand for statistical skills in academia, industry and the public services. The urgency of the problem is widely recognised, e.g. a recent report of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.The Centre for Research in Statistical Methodology (CRISM), based at the Department of Statistics of the University of Warwick, is a strategic and sustainable initiative offering a major contribution to reversing this decline. An initial EPSRC/HEFCE investment of 3.7M, together with continuing and substantial direct investment by Warwick, will secure the following key deliverables: a) help safeguard the UK's knowledge base in statistics by encouraging top-quality researchb) offer attractive new appointments to encourage talented young academics into the disciplinec) boost staff retention by providing the best research conditions and facilitiesd) develop an internationally competitive statistics PhD programme to attract the most mathematically able graduate students into statisticse) support multi-disciplinary collaboration leading to significant advances across a range of important statistical applications.The philosophy of CRISM is that maximum impact on statistics as a whole is best served by concentrating research and training on the methodological core of the discipline, and that the best return on investment is achieved by grafting the new centre onto a department with proven excellence in methodological research linking to strong applications groups. The Warwick Department of Statistics (RAE 5*/6*) excels in all of these areas, and has an excellent track record of exploiting statistical interactions. Through our methodological and theoretical advances we have contributed to government policy, industry, economics, agriculture, medicine, engineering, finance and law. Several recent excellent academic appointments make us one of the largest and most successful statistics groups in the UK.The core staff of CRISM will be:a) The Executive Team (Profs John Copas (chair), Jim Smith and Mark Steel)b) Three new academic posts to be sustained by the university at the end of the grantc) Rolling programme of postdoc RAs, five in total each for a three-year appointment CRISM will focus on strategic research and on a vigorous programme of recruiting and training PhD students (steady state 10 students), both enhanced by a sustained programme of visiting statisticians from academia, industry and research institutions. The Centre's brief includes an active programme of seminars and workshops, open electronic access to research papers and reports, and an outreach programme linking the work of the Centre to industry, commerce and to the wider research community. All of the Centre's programmes will benefit from the existing dynamic environment for statistical research at Warwick. Strong management by the Executive Team will ensure that the vision of the new Centre delivers in terms of capacity (boosting the statistical strength of the UK), impact (advances in the methodology of statistics benefit theory and practice across the whole spectrum of applications), sustainability (secure long-term future for the Centre additional to current department strength), knowledge transfer (through publications, collaboration, visits, workshops, future employment of RAs and PhD graduates) and timeliness (urgency of the need to invest in statistics is widely recognised).
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