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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Frontiers in Social and Behavioral Science – September 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 September research roundup here.

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What Can Linked Administrative Data Sets Teach Us About Eviction And Poverty In America?

The report leading to the creation of the SSRC in 1923 outlined several major challenges for social science: data collection, interpretation, measurement, and causality. This lecture will explore the extent to which newly available administrative datasets — linked together to create what is sometimes referred to as “big data” — can help address these challenges and contribute to our understanding of the causes and consequences of eviction and poverty in the United States. The lecture will draw heavily on a study of eviction in Chicago and New York, which is joint work with Robert Collinson, John Eric Humphries, Nick Mader, Davin Reed and Daniel Tannenbaum.

News President's Desk

Master Protocols: A Tool for Increasing the Reliability of Behavioral Evidence

Social Science Research Council President Anna Harvey shares a recent submission to an RFI from the NIH’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, to assess both the internal and external validity of interventions across populations. NIH support for master protocols to evaluate the impacts of behavioral interventions on outcomes like vaccination uptake could significantly advance the policy relevance of evidence in behavioral health research.

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Announcing the CSWEP-SSRC Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium Grantees

The Social Science Research Council, in partnership with the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economic Profession (CSWEP), and with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan and Henry Luce Foundations, created the CSWEP-SSRC Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium to expand the set of scalable interventions that increase the numbers and success of women in economics and mathematics. We are pleased to announce our grantees.

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Frontiers in Social and Behavioral Science – August 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 August research roundup here.

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Introducing the African Peacebuilding Network’s and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa’s 2023 Fellows

Each year, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN)–Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) program selects a new cohort of fellows for its highly competitive fellowships. This year, the APN awarded 17 Individual Research Fellowships (IRF), while Next Gen awarded 38 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships and 6 Post-Doctoral Writing Fellowships. Among the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, 8 are Dissertation Proposal fellows, 14 are Dissertation Research fellows, and 16 are Dissertation Completion fellows.

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