Mission
The mission of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at The Pennsylvania State University is to promote research encompassing the wide range of skills and perspectives that are needed to solve complex social problems. SSRI fosters communication and collaboration across the full range of social science disciplines and provides a shared infrastructure for social science research that enables faculty to conduct high-quality studies. Created by the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Education, Health and Human Development, and The Liberal Arts, SSRI is open to all social scientists at Penn State. Uniting outstanding social science faculty across the university, SSRI encourages and supports:
- Research of individual investigators from diverse fields
- Research collaborations across disciplinary lines, across colleges and research centers, and across universities
- Programs to support multidisciplinary graduate training
- Multidisciplinary centers of activity within SSRI that focus on different areas of social concern
In addition to the overall institute, SSRI includes a number of research centers focusing on specific issues in the social sciences. The Population Research Institute (PRI) is one of the foremost research and training programs in the population sciences in the United States. The Children, Youth, and Families Consortium was created to encourage and develop faculty expertise and to promote the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that could place Penn State in a position of national and international leadership, demonstrating the role a land-grant university could and should play in addressing critical social issues and serving community needs. SSRI also houses the Survey Research Center (SRC), which advances research and training in survey methods and meets the need for state-of-the-art and comprehensive survey services to support social science research.
SSRI offers a range of high quality services to all Penn State social scientists regardless of college or research unit. These include:
- Computing
- Data management and statistical programming
- Survey design and data collection through the SRC
- Geographic Information Systems approaches to social science research questions
- Methodological Consulting
For more information, please contact:
Susan M. McHale, Director
Social Science Research Institute
The Pennsylvania State University
601 Oswald Tower
University Park, PA 16802-6211
PHONE: (814) 865-1528
FAX: (814) 863-8342
Last modified: 01/10/08 | Contact Webmaster
