Advancing Social Science Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI) is the University of Iowa’s only Iowa Board of Regents approved premier interdisciplinary social science research center.

CSSI provides faculty, staff, students, and community members across the state of Iowa and beyond the resources and support they need to investigate the most important issues facing our society.

6 +

research incubation programs hosted annually

Researchers sit around a table

$26.9 M

In funds awarded in the
past five years

Old capitol building with flowers

80 +

Research projects supported in the past five years

2024 Summer Program cohort.

We're here to help

CSSI provides research and grant development support for University of Iowa faculty, staff, and graduate students, as well as external partners within the community. 

From survey creation and distribution, data access and management, to helping you craft a competitive grant proposal, our team is ready and capable to assist you with all of your project needs.

Explore current and past projects

 

Brian Ekdale and Mainul Islam consultation

Research Services

Browse our research services to learn how we may be able to help support your project. 

Kris Ackerson and Bingbing Zhang talk

Grant Development

Identify suitable funding opportunities, craft a competitive proposal, and more with the help of our grant development support staff.  

News

Core CSSI staff pose in front of SSRB

CSSI releases 2024-2025 Annual Report

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
DCP participants

CSSI invites UI graduate students to apply for Dissertation Completion Program

Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Yongren shi runs workshop

New workshops added to Fall 2025 Social Science Methods Series

Friday, August 29, 2025

Events and Workshops

CSSI Workshop: Intro to Multilevel Modeling with Erica Dorman promotional image

CSSI Workshop: Intro to Multilevel Modeling with Erica Dorman

Friday, October 17, 2025 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Virtual
This workshop will discuss the basics of multilevel modeling.
CSSI Workshop: Workflow in Stata with Meghan Rogers, PhD promotional image

CSSI Workshop: Workflow in Stata with Meghan Rogers, PhD

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 12:30pm to 2:00pm
Social Sciences Research Building
Have you ever opened a folder full of “FINAL_FINAL.docx” files and wondered which one was actually final? Lost track of which version of a dataset you were using? Then this workshop is for you.
CSSI Workshop: Facial Emotion Recognition with Sang Jung Kim, PhD - Part 1: Foundations of Computer Vision for Social Scientists promotional image

CSSI Workshop: Facial Emotion Recognition with Sang Jung Kim, PhD - Part 1: Foundations of Computer Vision for Social Scientists

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 12:30pm to 2:00pm
Virtual
This session offers an introduction to core computer vision concepts and their emerging applications in computational social science.