The Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC) was established at UCD in 1999 following a successful bids for research funding under the Higher Education Authority Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, part of the National Development Plan 2000-2006.
In the early stage of ISSC’s development, the research focus shifted from narrow discipline/department groupings and re-aligned across five distinct but interrelated research programmes – International Trade and Investment, Governance, Identity, Diversity and Citizenship, Policy Evaluation and Public Opinion and Political Behaviour. The programmes are currently the vehicles through which ISSC delivers its commitment to raising the quality of social science research, in line with the University Strategic Plan.
The Institute also houses the Irish Social Science Data Archive.
The mission of the Institute for the Study of Social Change is to foster excellence in the social sciences at UCD, and more specifically to:
·Develop frontier methods of investigation, leading to the very best in research publication - articles in the leading international peer reviewed journals and books with academic publishers of distinction.
·Enhance the international profile – and the international ranking – of our researchers.
·Play a central role in the training of social science researchers and maximise the interaction between researchers of excellence and the graduate student cohort.
·Highlight the importance and relevance of our research to society through an appropriate interaction with policymakers, media and the public.
Research
Using a state of the art facility on the Belfield campus of UCD, the Institute conducts research on a variety of themes (including for example, the monitoring of social, political and economic change in Ireland and globally, poverty and inequality, European integration, sociology of health and illness, public policy and public opinion). The quality of research output is one of the core values of ISSC. This is borne out by recent successes in a number of pan-European competitions for funding from the European Commission which will lead to visits by doctoral and post-doctoral Fellows. Associated staff of ISSC also undertake commissioned research and consultancy work for a range of public, private and voluntary bodies.
PhD Programme
The Institute offers a unique PhD programme in the social science. The programme differs from the traditional PhD in that students (who will typically already possess a Masters degree) undertake a range of advanced taught courses and receive solid training in research methodology. Students also have the opportunity to undertake part of their studies at another university abroad and to work with leading teams of researchers. A limited number of scholarships are available through ISSC each year to students wishing to undertake a PhD in economics, politics or sociology/social policy.
Irish Social Science Data Archive
The Institute is also home to the Irish Social Science Data Archive. The Archive holds material such as census and survey data, election results and opinion polls and makes them readily available to users in the academic, public an commercial sectors in Ireland and beyond. The Archive is managed jointly by UCD and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and has the support of the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
