This is an independent, international, non-profit organisation founded in 1923. Governed by board of directors, its fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practised within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. It was founded by visionaries in the fledgling fields of anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology,
sociology and statistics. The organisation was shaped by the need to cross the boundaries that separated these disciplines from each other, university scholarship from public affairs and the social sciences from the
humanities and natural sciences. The council is unique in scope and structure. It convenes scholars, practitioners and policy makers while standing alongside the academy and public affairs. By supporting individual scholars, enhancing the capacity of institutions, generating new research and linking researchers with policymakers and citizens, the SSRC plays a vital role in efforts to build a more just and democratic world.
SSRC staff and scholars work to gather knowledge and communicate its implications for debate and public use. The council offers an independent space for collaboration and an unbiased voice for social science. Though research networks and committees, workshops and conferences, summer training institutes and fellowships, scholarly exchanges and publications and the council enhances the conditions for knowledge production worldwide. By connecting disciplines and methods, the SSRC advances fresh ways to inquire, expand and integrate the craft of social science. The councils experience and standing allow it to convene leading researchers and practitioners from policymakers and UN leaders, to architects and artists, to
journals and activists to generate new knowledge and explore solutions to pressing public matters.
Among the councils first project is ground breaking inquiries into industrial relations, the development of official statistics,
business cycles and economic growth. It has established the university fund for the social sciences, a consortium of higher
education partners providing annual financial support to enhance the infrastructure of
social science research, catalyse interdisciplinary and cross institutional collaborations, and help to launch the careers of junior scholars, who are offered fellowships, workshops and various forms of mentorship. For more than ninety years, the council has navigated these borders, emerging as both a pivotal force in the academy and a respected contributor to the public. Some programs work on many fronts in many fields to gather knowledge and communicate its implications for debit and public use. The council supports some 900 scholars through fellowships, each year providing more than 15,000 fellowships overtime. Some 200 scholars and practitioners serve on SSRC committees annually on a pro bono basis.
The Council is defined not by its work on any one topic, nor by any one specific disciplinary combination. Indeed, in different projects it often brings social scientists together with humanists, behavioural scientists, natural scientists, biomedical researchers and technologists. Its distinctive niche is to innovate and incubate, to identify emergent lines of research of critical social importance that will be enhanced by interdisciplinary or international ties, and to help scattered researchers build networks and nascent fields to achieve critical mass.
Last Updated on: Nov 26, 2024