Infrastructure for Basic Research in the Social Sciences

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The proposed pilot program involves planning conferences and oversight activities leading to the selection and implementation of multidisciplinary projects capable of developing theoretical microfoundations and strengthening empirical methods in the social sciences. The program seeks support for a series of multidisciplinary collaborative research projects to be organized at the Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences (C-BRSS) at Harvard University. Basic research is inherently interdisciplinary and implies quanitification and the fostering of mathematical techniques in social analysis. Two examples of exciting developments not widely known to social scientists, or at least not widely used in their research, are provided. One develops microfoundations by drawing together scholars from evolutionary approaches, cognitive science, experimental social science, and rational choice. The other combines innovators, methodologists, and substantive researchers in developing neural network methods. Both projects exemplify the interdisciplinary cooperation and collaboration that will emerge from the unique proposed program of project design, selection, and management. The proposed program builds on our significant experience in working with scholars in different fields. A feature of the program is the design of multidisciplinary projects spanning a period of selection and planning, the actual execution of research, ongoing evaluation, and follow-up dissemination and eventual publication. Another is the explicit process by which proposal selection and evaluation of areas of investigation and project participants occur. The process if open and fair, making the project and its results accessible, accountable, and available to the broader scholarly community. There are clear procedures for evaluating the success of projects based on observable producitivty. Projects benefit from the presence of a strong supportive intellectual environment for participants. C-BRSS provides a site and the technological foundation for a unique combination of in-residence and virtual collaboration. Finally, but by no means least important, C-BRSS can draw on a unique financial arrangement with the university for matching support in order to contribute significant cost sharing to the program.