Infrastructure for Basic Research in the Social Sciences

拟议的试点计划包括规划会议和监督活动，从而选择和实施能够发展社会科学微观理论基础和加强实证方法的多学科项目。该计划寻求对哈佛大学社会科学基础研究中心(C-BRSS)组织的一系列多学科合作研究项目的支持。基础研究本质上是跨学科的，意味着社会分析中的量化和数学技能的培养。这里提供了两个令人兴奋的发展的例子，社会科学家并不广为人知，或者至少在他们的研究中没有被广泛使用。人们通过聚集来自进化方法、认知科学、实验社会科学和理性选择的学者来发展微观基础。另一种是将创新者、方法学家和实质性研究人员结合在一起，开发神经网络方法。这两个项目都体现了从独特的项目设计、选择和管理方案中产生的跨学科合作和协作。拟议的项目建立在我们与不同领域的学者合作的重要经验基础上。该计划的一个特点是设计多学科项目，跨越一段时间的选择和规划，实际执行研究，持续评估，以及后续传播和最终出版。另一个是对调查领域和项目参与方进行提案选择和评价的明确程序。这一过程是公开和公平的，使项目及其成果易于获得、负责，并可供更广泛的学术界使用。根据可观察到的生产率，有明确的程序来评估项目的成功。项目受益于为参与者提供强有力的支持性智力环境。C-BRSS为现场和虚拟协作的独特组合提供了场所和技术基础。最后，但绝不是最不重要的是，C-BRSS可以利用与大学的独特财务安排进行匹配支持，以便为该项目贡献大量的成本分担。

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.