Research Coordinating Center (RCC)

The Center for Innovation in Intensive Longitudinal Studies (CIILS) brings together an interdisciplinary team to synergistically support and coordinate research activities across a diverse portfolio of U01 projects to accomplish the Network’s larger goal of sustained innovation in the use of Intensive Longitudinal Data (ILD) and associated methods in the study of health behavior change, and in informing prevention and intervention designs.

The recent popularity of intensive longitudinal study designs such as experience sampling, daily diary, and ecological momentary and ambulatory assessment has prompted a surge in the development and application of within-person or intra-individual analytic techniques in the social and behavioral sciences. In parallel, the rapid market penetration of mobile computing and miniaturization of technology continues to increase the density and scale at which real-time data may be obtained from individuals. The resulting data streams have tremendous implications for how health behaviors can be studied and modified, both in principle and in practice. In the same way that industry giants (e.g., Amazon, Google) are using real-time mobile data to and dynamic algorithms to develop tailored information search/retrieval and item/advertising recommendations across business sectors, health researchers can and should be harvesting ILD, developing novel algorithms, and delivering real-time interventions that improve health behaviors. This project seizes the opportunity to act on this convergence of opportunities.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) founded the Intensive Longitudinal Behavior Network (ILHBN) provides an unprecedented opportunity to advance and shape the future landscape of health behavior science and related intervention practice.  The CIILS is designed to facilitate information flow, collective decision making, and coordination of goals and effort within the ILHBN.

The CIILS will foster an integrated and collaborative research environment across the U01 sites by:

1.            Overseeing and coordinating development of common protocols for testing health theories;

2.            Facilitating collection of new ILD and access to existing ILD (e.g., digital footprints);

3.            Coordinating efforts to collect and share standardized health measures;

4.            Harmonizing measurement of overlapping constructs;

5.            Harmonizing ILD analytic methods, inferential procedures, and reporting of results across studies;

6.            Maintaining a secure central repository for data, and its associated collection, processing, and analysis, as well as Institutional Review Board (IRB) records to support integrative data analysis, rigor and replication;

7.            Facilitating the transfer and harmonization of data and information through collective sharing agreements;

8.            Maintaining a secure central computational cluster to support data access and preliminary data processing;

9.            Establishing guidelines for sharing data as well as resources contributed jointly by ILHBN members; and

10.         Coordinating communications, meetings, and governance of the ILHBN.