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

Grad student builds research skills with CSSI

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

CSSI awards Surveying the Social World opportunity to two UI researchers

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Events and Workshops

Survey Accessibility in a Flash: Universal Design for Universal Insight promotional image

Survey Accessibility in a Flash: Universal Design for Universal Insight

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 12:00pm to 12:50pm
Virtual
Join the Center for Social Science Innovation and the Office of Civil Rights Compliance for a quick introduction to survey accessibility, with a focus on the importance of accessibility in survey research and best practices during survey recruitment, development, and deployment. The workshop will introduce participants to general principles of digital accessibility and use Qualtrics to demonstrate best practices for developing accessible recruitment materials and surveys. The strategies learned from this workshop will be applicable to a range of survey design needs, including for research purposes and for distributing general feedback surveys.
Intro to Python with Anindita Bandyopadhyay promotional image

Intro to Python with Anindita Bandyopadhyay

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Virtual
This workshop will introduce Python and foundational machine learning concepts, utilizing a dataset comprising textual content. Participants will learn the basics of coding in Python, set up a data science environment, and explore key machine learning concepts applied to text data. No prior experience with Python or machine learning is required. This is a virtual workshop and will be held over Zoom.
Using LLM to Develop Variables for Social Sciences with Bodi Vasi, PhD promotional image

Using LLM to Develop Variables for Social Sciences with Bodi Vasi, PhD

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Social Sciences Research Building
This workshop will examine how social scientists can use Large Language Models (LLM) to develop variables that can be used in statistical analyses by social scientists. As social scientists have gained access to an increasing amount of textual data, automated text analysis (ATA) has become one of their standard toolsets. LLM is another ATA tool, yet social scientists are just beginning to use it. This interactive and applied workshop explores how social scientists can use LLM to develop measures that can be used as variables in quantitative analyses. The workshop does not require any prerequisite knowledge and is open to all social scientists.