Social Sciences Research Center

The Social Sciences Research Center (SSRC) was established in December 2017, with a mission to advance and accelerate social science research and maximize its innovation and impact. Under the leadership of a Faculty Advisory Committee, our funding and activities are designed to foster team-based and multi-method collaborative approaches to understanding complex, interdisciplinary questions that will help shape the emerging fields and sub-fields of the social sciences.

Facility: The SSRC is located at 1155 E. 60th St, where 10 faculty members currently use the facility to house research teams and operations for a diverse array of research projects—supported by more than $9.3M in active grants. Conference rooms are available for reservation.

Research Development: The research development team supports faculty research from large-scale federally funded research projects and centers, to private research grants and contracts for individual investigators, to fellowships for faculty who wish to extend research leaves. Services are tailored to meet each researcher’s unique needs and might also include drafting standard grant sections, advising on project staffing and budget, providing substantive feedback and copyedits for proposal narratives, coordinating sub-awards and contracts, and convening mock review panels.

Research Funding: The SSRC administers a competitive seed grant program designed to support the most promising faculty-led, early-stage research with a special focus on projects designed to provide the “proof of concept” necessary for researchers to secure larger extramural investments. To date, the program has awarded $385K to 14 faculty members across six departments and has led to more than $6.7M in extramural funding. The SSRC also administers a number of competitive grants for graduate student research.

Events: The SSRC hosts a wide variety of programming and workshops to support faculty and student research. Some aim to leverage the University’s research facilities and support operations, others convene faculty and students who use similar methods or focus on similar topics to cultivate collaborations, and some focus on grant-writing and specific funding agencies and mechanisms.

Broader Impacts: The SSRC aims to bring research out of the academy and into the world through its Facilitating Thought Leadership and Alumni-in-Residence programs. SSRC also works closely with the Office of Civic Engagement to connect faculty researchers with community partners.