Advisory Committee on statistical methods

The Committee meets twice a year to discuss the methodological aspects of strategic projects for Istat, according to the annual and three-year programming processes. The planned activities are:

• • Refereeing of strategic projects – Based on a project abstract, the Committee assigns to two of its members the responsibility of discussing how to possibly improve the overall project quality, with suggestions and recommendations on the methods to use. The discussants act independently and may designate additional discussants (not necessarily from the Committee) for the project evaluation. The project is presented at one of the annual meetings, where all members of the Committee have the documentation available. The discussion of each project is collegial and is promoted by the discussants. The project proponent and other team members are invited to the meeting part concerning their research work.

• • Tutoring of strategic projects – For some projects, a tutor may be appointed, i.e. a reference expert within the members of the Committee to whom the person in charge can turn to for advice and suggestions. Tutoring will take place remotely, and during the meetings there will be sessions dedicated to discussing the progress of the projects being tutored.

• • Advanced methodological training – In one of the two annual meetings, the Committee discusses and provides an opinion on actions of advanced training for supporting the development of skills in the methodological area. The Committee is the channel for identifying and recruiting teachers to be involved in targeted training actions (Master Classes).

Members of the Committee come from different academic and professional fields and constitute a valuable ‘interdisciplinary network’.

In the third three-year period 2024-2026, the Committee is  composed as follows:

Chair

• • Daniela Cocchi (University of Bologna)

Experts

• • Brunero Liseo, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Maria Giovanna Ranalli, professor (University of Perugia)

• • Natalie Shlomo, lecturer (University of Manchester, UK)

• • Li-Chun Zang, professor (University of Southampton, UK, and Statistics Norway)

• • Piero D. Falorsi, expert (formerly at Sistat)

• • David Haziza, professor (University of Ottawa, Canada)

• • Marco Alfò, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Piet Daas, lecturer (Statistics Netherlands and Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)

The Committee may be subsequently supplemented to involve experts from other areas including mathematical demography, statistical methods for the environment, and econometric models.

In  2020-2022, extended for all of 2023, the composition of the Committee was:

Chair

• • Daniela Cocchi (University of Bologna)

Experts

• • Pierre Lavallée, expert (formerly at Statistics Canada)

• • Brunero Liseo, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Maria Giovanna Ranalli, professor (University of Perugia)

• • Natalie Shlomo, lecturer (University of Manchester, UK)

• • Li-Chun Zang, professor (University of Southampton, UK, and Statistics Norway)

• • Maurizio Lenzerini, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Piero D. Falorsi, expert (formerly at Sistat)

For  years 2017-2020, the composition of the  Committee was:

Chair

• • Daniela Cocchi, professor (University of Bologna)

Experts

• • Ray Chambers, professor (University of Wollagong, Australia)

• • Pierre Lavallée, expert (Statistics Canada)

• • Brunero Liseo, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Maria Giovanna Ranalli, professor (University of Perugia)

• • Li-Chun Zhang, professor (University of Southampton, UK, and Statistics Norway)

• • Maurizio Lenzerini, professor (Sapienza University of Rome)

• • Marlon Dumas, professor (University of Tartu, Estonia)

List of projects discussed by the Committee in the period 2017-25 and related publications