Data-heads, rejoice!

The public policy wings of three local universities are joining forces to form the Applied Research Collaborative, a data clearinghouse and analysis service dedicated to number-crunching and mapping their way through many of the regional challenges facing the St. Louis area.

St. Louis University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville are teaming up for the effort, which will bring together each school’s public policy research divisions to help provide better information about community development, land use, public health and other topics. They’ll track data, make maps and study trends and offer their services to local governments, nonprofit groups and the public. The goal, they said, is to provide a resource for local leaders and community groups to help them make policy decisions.

“We want to leverage all that information that’s out there,” said Bob Mai, director of RegionWise, a data center at St. Louis University. “We can help you think with data. At least that’s our goal.”

The project is still getting off the ground, and Tuesday, the Center brought in leaders of three similar, more-established centers in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, to talk about ideas and what might be done here.

Stay tuned.