SSRI is one of the seven signature initiatives at Duke University. We are poised to achieve excellence and distinctiveness through an ambitious series of interrelated efforts that connect research – both basic and applied – and teaching.

Noteworthy among these are our Faculty Fellows Program, a planned series of peer-reviewed conferences, and a new interdisciplinary initiative in social science statistics, designed to provide graduate and undergraduate students with quantitative skills needed to work at the forefront of social and behavioral research. Understanding how to create, evaluate, and transmit new knowledge is essential if our students are to become leaders in academia, industry, science, and management, and the programs we develop will support and train scholars at all levels so that they have the skill sets to assume these roles.

SSRI provides Duke scholars an integrated set of research facilities focused on the collection, assessment, analysis and transmission of data at the frontiers of social and behavioral sciences research and fosters the development of interdisciplinary teams devoted to creating and disseminating new knowledge within areas that promote excellence, are relevant to policy, and hold intellectual importance. 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.