On Friday, December 12, 2025, the Social Science Research Council will convene institutional leaders from the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences, together with leaders of philanthropic organizations and other research partners, for a conference titled “On Earning Trust: The Case for the Social Sciences.”

Universities are under immense pressure to demonstrate their value (and their values) to constituencies including governments, students, parents, and civil society. Recent changes in federal funding are symptomatic of, and increase, this pressure. In this context, this conference will explore how social science can illuminate the challenge of earning and sustaining trust—in universities, research, leadership, and institutions. Across disciplines and continents, the event will examine how trust is built, eroded, and restored through credible action, transparency, and shared moral purpose.

Advocates of abundance have identified “failed public policy” as an increasingly significant barrier to growth. State and local policies that fail to effectively deliver critically important public goods and services like health, education, safety, clean air and water, and growth-oriented infrastructure are of particular concern. 

The Social Science Research Council is supporting the members of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences in leveraging the emerging research findings about the determinants of government innovation to design a set of evidence-based initiatives aimed at accelerating state and local government innovation.

We know relatively little about the efficacy of universities’ efforts to encourage commercially viable scientific and technological innovation, support the contributions of grant-funded students and early career researchers to scientific and technological innovation after they leave university campuses, and increase and broaden opportunities in critical STEM fields. 

The Social Science Research Council is supporting the members of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences in designing a set of initiatives aimed at generating evidence-based strategies to accelerate universities' contributions to scientific and technological innovation.