Minnesota State Fair Research
OMS continued to partner with University of Minnesota researchers at the Minnesota State Fair Driven to Discover Research Facility. Our collaboration included increasing awareness of the facility, conducting an innovative SMS data collection experiment, and consulting on how to reach eligible attendees in a large longitudinal study of young adults in Minnesota.
The Driven to Discover (D2D) Research Facility was launched in 2014 to bring University research and researchers into closer contact with the Minnesota community. The facility allows fairgoers to conveniently participate in real University research while also allowing researchers to harness a diverse pool of Minnesota residents, enabling them to meet recruitment goals more efficiently. Since 2016, over 30 research papers or publications have been written based on research conducted at the D2D Research Facility.
With more than 50 research projects present in 2018, there were ample research topics to meet the interests of all fairgoers. Examples of project topics from 2018 included measures of body awareness, games for brains, Sunday alcohol sales opinions, birth control, elderly health care needs, autism awareness, hypertension treatment, sleep, sports concussions, and many others.
Over 60,000 fairgoers visited the D2D Research Facility during the 2018 Fair. Applications are now being accepted for the 2019 State Fair. Apply today.