Social Science Research Institute
Executive Summary
The Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) grew out of Duke's preceding strategic plan, and this plan capitalizes on its growing momentum. SSRI distinguishes Duke from its peer institutions. SSRI offers an extent of resources not found at other interdisciplinary institutes. Its small size enables it to innovate quickly in response to need, to address the specific needs of a faculty and students, and to accomplish these goals in a supportive context that promotes interdisciplinary interactions and collaborations among all its members.
Only Duke's SSRI locates focused programs of research, methodological support and training, and proposal development services in a single place. SSRI alone offers scholars opportunities to convene with others of like interests yet different backgrounds to examine a topic in depth, offers these scholars on-site statistical consulting and training (as well as laboratory facilities and computing resources), and supports their efforts by assisting them in locating and securing external funds for the projects they seek to undertake as a result of their involvement in SSRI.
We will further develop our leadership role at the cutting edge of the social and behavioral sciences by innovating with new programs while developing and enhancing existing research facilities, training programs, and scholarship. SSRI and affiliated programs and initiatives will move into the forefront of the social and behavioral sciences at Duke, will integrate a series of programs in these interconnected disciplines, and will assist in securing Duke's place as a world leader in the social and behavioral sciences. The plan details six interrelated, yet discrete, components:
- A Center for Advanced Research, fostering interdisciplinary scholarship in the social and behavioral sciences at Duke and throughout academic and policy institutions.
- An Interdisciplinary Initiative in Social Science Statistics, working to advance knowledge across interdisciplinary boundaries by developing and adapting quantitative methods to test hypotheses and explore data structures and to train students and faculty in the use of these methods.
- A sequence of training experiences providing social and behavioral scientists with skills that represent the state of the science research capabilities.
- A summer Institute in Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models, bringing to Duke the best advanced graduate students and junior faculty from the social and behavioral sciences and fostering closer linkages between theory and empirical testing.
- A series of sponsored, peer-reviewed national and international conferences.
- An integrated set of research facilities.
We know of no other center that offers this comprehensive package of services to scholars in the social and behavioral sciences. This is the unique profile of SSRI across the country. We anticipate that SSRI's model will rapidly become one that other universities emulate.