Practical SAE: Implementing Solutions Using Multiple Data Sources

An Introductory Hybrid IASS-ISEC International Workshop

18 - 21 May 2026

Sponsors:

The International Association of Survey Statisticians  (IASS)	International Statistical Education Center (ISEC)
Afbeelding	Afbeelding

Workshop Overview 

The Challenge and Opportunity

The demand for reliable granular statistics is growing across sectors like health, agriculture, transportation, and socio-economic research. However, governments and organisations face the challenge of rising costs for high-quality, large-scale surveys. Recent advancement in Small Area Estimation (SAE) methodology and the increased availability of administrative records, geospatial data, and census datasets offer a powerful solution: providing researchers with the tools to produce more precise granular estimates than ever before. This hybrid workshop focuses on the first step towards practical implementation of SAE through selected case studies. While it provides a foundational overview, participants may require additional training and research to apply these methods to specialised applications. This workshop will not cover theoretical aspects of SAE.

What You Will Learn
•    Challenges for generating reliable disaggregated data and key ideas of SAE to tackle those challenges.
•    Illustrative examples of state-of-the-art SAE models and techniques.
•    An introduction to some free and effective R packages used in the field today.
•    Case studies demonstrating how to produce some Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators at highly localised levels.

Workshop Format & Logistics
This is a hybrid event, fostering a global participation across borders:
•    In-Person: Hosted at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) campus in Kolkata, India.
•    Virtual: Open to global participants via a live webinar link.

In-person participation is restricted to representatives from more than 10 developing countries within the ISEC training program. Virtual attendance registration is now open.

Pre-requisites
•    An introductory course in applied statistics covering regression analysis and survey sampling.
•    Knowledge of R programming is desirable but not mandatory.

Workshop Schedule
All times are listed in Central European Summer Time (CEST).

This 4 days x 90 Minutes workshop will take place via Zoom on these days: