News

Social Science Research Council launches Research AMP platform 

The Social Science Research Council is pleased to announce the public launch of the Research AMP platform, a free, open-source technology for building scholarly communities, collecting research, and sharing insights with new audiences. Research AMP lowers barriers to the dissemination of public scholarship and fills the need to put credible, accessible, and comprehensive scholarship in the hands of expert and lay audiences. 

Now accepting applications for the SSRC-Arnold Ventures Criminal Justice Innovation Fellowships

To secure more effective and equitable criminal justice practices, we need to innovate and evaluate new policy solutions that can be adopted by local, state, and federal policymakers. The Arnold Ventures Criminal Justice Innovation Fellowships will support five postdoctoral fellows who are pursuing policy-relevant causal research designed to innovate and evaluate cost-effective and scalable policy solutions that advance the efficacy and equity of criminal justice practices. Click here for more information and to apply.

What Conventional Wisdom Gets Wrong About Political Polarization

In this lecture, Professor David Broockman explores how Americans are politically polarized, why–and why not–this matters, and potential solutions. Professor Broockman discusses how his research has challenged conventional wisdom on: (1) to what extent Americans’ frustrations with government result from politicians being too extreme, (2) to what extent voters’ dislike of each other–so-called affective polarization–contributes to the nation’s political challenges, and (3) how we all can have more productive and persuasive conversations with our political rivals.

Exploring the economic impacts of university research: a new National Science Foundation partnership

A new collaboration between the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) at the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS) at the University of Michigan, the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC) at The Ohio State University, and the Social Science Research Council will build a prototype data infrastructure to enable stakeholders to track the flow of grant-funded scientific talent from universities into regional economies.

Frontiers in Social and Behavioral Science – October 2023

At the 100th anniversary of the Council’s founding, we are proud to honor its founders and to celebrate the achievements of policy-relevant and solutions-oriented social and behavioral science. Every month Frontiers features an article from the most recent issue of each founding association’s flagship journal. Across disciplines, the frontiers of social and behavioral science are rapidly advancing, and with them, our collective capacity to support global well-being. Explore the seven articles featured in the October research roundup here.

Leveraging the Mercury Project Research Framework

Mercury Project codirector Heather Lanthorn introduces the project’s newly updated Research Framework, a public good that supports researchers, funders, and policymakers by mapping intervention designs designed to increase vaccination demand and science-based decision-making along with policy-relevant outcomes of interest. The 18 teams in the Mercury Project Research Consortium—working in 18 countries around the world—use the framework in their projects.

Master Protocols for USAID Social and Behavioral Change Research

The Social Science Research Council recently submitted a response to an RFI from the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund, detailing how the NIH could improve the reliability of evidence in behavioral research by borrowing the idea of master protocols from the field of oncology. Master protocols are coordinated multisite trials followed by meta-analysis designed to assess both the internal and the external validity of interventions across populations. Here, we share a related submission to an RFI from USAID, suggesting that master protocols could also help USAID achieve its goals of improving the quality of its social and behavioral change (SBC) programming while simultaneously ensuring responsiveness to local SBC priorities and centering locally-led SBC research teams.

Policy-Relevant Social and Behavioral Science: Effective Governance

In this virtual convening of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences, William Howell, director of the Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago, and Cyrus Samii of New York University and Executive Director of the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) network, discussed each organization’s approach to balancing high-quality research with practical partnerships with government officials, NGOs, and journalists.

Three NSF co-funded research teams join the Mercury Project

With co-funding from the National Science Foundation, the Mercury Project has added three new teams to the consortium, bringing the total to 18 teams working around the world to increase vaccination and science-based health decision making. The new teams will test whether an interactive video-based decision aid can help improve patients’ understanding of the risks and benefits of vaccinations, test new theories of vaccine decision making, and explore the role of local models of illness and trust in shaping health decisions in rural Namibia.

Building an Evidence Base for Climate Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and facilitating adaptation to climate change requires effective public investments, yet many policies and programs lack crucial evidence of their effectiveness. In low and middle income countries, the cost of putting resources toward ineffective policies is particularly high. This talk discusses two recent randomized controlled trials aimed at filling the evidence gap. The first tests novel approaches to reduce agricultural emissions in India. The second improves smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate shocks in Niger. Findings highlight the need for piloting before scaling up policy — in both projects, cost effectiveness was improved through innovative policy design.

Menu