EVIDENCE-BASED POLICYMAKING IS MORE ESSENTIAL THAN EVER GIVEN MANY CONCURRENT CHALLENGES FACING SOCIETY TODAY. TO TACKLE THESE POLICYMAKING CHALLENGES, APPLIED ECONOMISTS CAN MAKE STRATEGIC USE OF QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA. DESPITE ACCESS TO MORE DATA THAN EVER BEFORE, NO SINGLE DATASET IS SUFFICIENT FOR PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OR SOLUTION TO MANY QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS. IN THESE CASES, RESEARCHERS ARE FORCED TO EITHER DO AN INCOMPLETE ANALYSIS OR ATTEMPT TO LINK DATASETS (E.G., NHANES, CPS, ATUS, SNAP, IRI). EVEN BEFORE DETERMINING WHETHER THERE IS A NEED TO LINK DATA, RESEARCHERS MUST BE FAMILIAR WITH THE AVAILABILITY AND ATTRIBUTES OF DIFFERENT DATASETS A PRIORI. THUS, DETAILED KNOWLEDGE OF DATA SOURCES AND TRAINING IN DATA LINKAGES ARE IMPERATIVE FOR PRODUCING IMPACTFUL RESEARCH, EVEN WHEN CONTEXTUAL, ECONOMETRIC, AND DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE IS ALREADY PRESENT. TO BEGIN TO OVERCOME SOME OF THESE ROADBLOCKS, WE INTEND TO INCORPORATE INNOVATIONS IN DATA IDENTIFICATION AND LINKAGES IN A POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP SPONSORED BY THE AGRICULTURAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS ASSOCIATION. THIS WORKSHOP WILL DELIVER HIGH-QUALITY RESOURCES WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR CATALYZING NEW AND EMERGING INITIATIVES IN THE FIELD. OUR INTENDED AUDIENCE IS ANYONE INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT OPPORTUNITIES FOR LINKING DATA SETS OFTEN USED BY AGRICULTURAL AND APPLIED ECONOMISTS. WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A RICH AGENDA WITH SPEAKERS FROM MULTIPLE RESEARCH AREAS. BEYOND THE PROPOSED WORKSHOP, WE WILL DEVELOP AN ONLINE RESOURCE THAT FEATURES DATA RESOURCES, AND PREPARE A LARGER GRANT SUBMISSION TO BUILD A DATA INFRASTRUCTURE.