The Institute for Social Science Research works to build a collaborative space for researchers, faculty and graduate students to explore ideas together and obtain support for their research. We aim to promote the findings of innovative social science research through communication and outreach.

We offer many resources to researchers in the UMass community, including workshops, seminars on research issues, walk-in research consultation, and support for proposal writing and grant administration. The Institute for Social Science Research also maintains a list of Five College courses related to research methods, as well as information about useful research tools and opportunities across the UMass campus. Our training lab houses 12 computers installed with a variety of analytic software packages and is staffed by highly qualified consultants led by our methodologist, and we have available digital transcription equipment to loan.

We administer three internal seed funding opportunities aimed at helping UMass researchers develop proposals for external funding. ISSR offers a Scholars Program that is available to all social science faculty across the university. ISSR administers the research and travel grants for faculty in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Graduate School’s Dissertation Research Grants program for Ph.D. students in SBS departments.