ABSTRACT
The role of a statistical consultant cannot be overemphasized in evidence-based research and policymaking in the real world. A statistical consultant liaises and collaborates with clients; delivers statistical analysis and research; and provides statistical training, advice and possible support to statisticians and nonstatisticians. From previous studies and experiences, the availability of well-trained statistical consultants is inadequate, which is the case in North Central Nigeria, thereby constituting a major hindrance to the growth and development of statistical capacity building in the region. Hence, there is a need to teach undergraduate and postgraduate statistical students the critical statistical consulting and collaboration skills through the activities that are usually carried out in the Nasarawa State University Keffi – Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (NSUK-LISA) stat lab, Nigeria to bridge the gap between theory and application. This article will provide specific examples of the achievements of the stat lab, as an example of what stat labs can accomplish. The NSUK-LISA stat lab became a member of the LISA 2020 network in January 2018 with the mission to train staff and students of statistics, organize short courses and perform research collaboration with nonstatisticians. The NSUK-LISA stat lab has held many workshops and organized training in statistical short courses involving the use of R, STATA, EViews and MINITAB and has successfully collaborated with postgraduate students in accounting, business administration and statistics. The NSUK-LISA stat lab uses the TEAM (T-Teach, E-Examples with real-world data, A-Attitudinal influence, M-Mentoring) framework in its activities in the stat lab. Many successes have been recorded ranging from effective collaboration, application of appropriate simple and complex statistical methods to any set of data, publications in high impact journals, effective presentation of statistical results and mentoring of other LISA stat labs in North Central Nigeria.
