An interactive website created by the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University has been recognized with a national award.

The BERC’s research-based, interactive dashboard website, Tracking Tennessee’s Economy, was granted the National AUBER 2022 Award of Excellence. The website features an interactive dashboard displaying information about Tennessee’s economic and labor market trends, sourced from monthly data from the state, county, and metropolitan statistical areas, MSAs.

Established in 1947, the Association for University Business and Economic Research, or AUBER, is the foremost professional organization for business and economic research centers. Its membership is comprised of economists and researchers from over 75 public and private universities in the United States who are committed to raising the standard of business economics and public policy research.

BERC Director Murat Arik, who accepted the award at AUBER’s fall conference in October, conducts research for the Tracking Tennessee’s Economy dashboard in collaboration with the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, or TACIR. He expressed his appreciation for the award and emphasized the essential contributions provided by his staff.

“It is an honor to be recognized by our peers with this prestigious award. Our team has worked extremely hard and spent countless hours trying to make the website into something special,” said Arik, who also holds the Jennings and Rebecca Jones Chair of Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. “My hope is that our website will continue to be a valuable resource for Tennesseans by supplying accurate economic data and helpful tools.”

The dashboard provides users with a detailed analysis of seasonally adjusted weekly unemployment claims, single-family home construction permits, state sales tax collections, nonfarm employment, unemployment rates, average weekly hours worked, and average hourly earnings for Tennessee.

Each year, AUBER issues three awards of excellence in print publications, electronic publications, and websites. The BERC received the award for excellence in websites “because of the many features embedded in the user-friendly, visually appealing site. Most notably, its accurate content, simple navigation, and functionality contribute to a valuable overall experience,” the organization noted.

The BERC, founded in 1970, functions as a public service by researching the regional economy and operates on a contract basis for clients in the local community.

For more information, visit the website at www.mtsu.edu/tacir.

— Jimmy Hart (Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu)