OTHER PROJECT INFORMATION – Project Summary/Abstract Core A – Administrative and Research Support Core The NBER programs in health care and aging have as their building blocks the independent research projects of a very large group of economics investigators. This Center grant, and the administrative core particularly, provides the integrative connections between these building brocks, and the coordinating umbrella structure that brings them all together. Its significance is in transforming these building blocks into a programmatic whole that is far more than the sum of its parts. The administrative core provides the primary leadership and infrastructure resources to accomplish that aim. It also assures the ongoing evolution of the Center’s research agenda toward important new scientific opportunities as they arise. Among its key activities, the administrative core provides intellectual leadership to the study of aging and health issues at the NBER; it coordinates activities into an integrated programmatic effort; it arranges meetings and conferences that bring people together to share, plan and collaborate; it recruits and engages new investigators in the study of health and aging issues; it manages and enhances a large library of health-related databases for researcher use; and it provides administrative support that assures the efficient and productive operation of this umbrella of research activity.