The Charles E. Lindblom Memorial Fellowship supports an interdisciplinary social science project by an advanced graduate student at one of the member institutions of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences. One fellowship of $7,500 will be offered to a doctoral candidate pursuing original and interdisciplinary research in economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, and/or history.

The SSRC is pleased to invite College and University Fund member institutions to apply for funding to host a Policy Innovation Day, on or off campus, during the 2026/2027 academic year. The Policy Innovation Days initiative supports convenings designed to incubate impactful research and evaluation collaborations between SSRC member universities and their state and local government partners.

In December 2025, the Council convened institutional leaders from the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences (CUF) with leaders of philanthropic organizations and other research partners, for our 2025 CUF conference: “On Earning Trust: The Case for the Social Sciences.” With panels on trust in higher education, trust and societal institutions, and funder perspectives on trust, this conference explored the challenge of earning, sustaining, and restoring trust in universities, research, and more—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.