Social Policy Institute

Social Policy Institute

The Social Policy Institute was launched in June this year as part of Public Policy 2013.

The Institute is committed to multi-disciplinary and collaborative research on social policy issues in Australia and internationally. It encompasses the Children’s Policy Centre in the Crawford School and cooperates closely with the HC Coombs Policy Forum and other Centres and research groups within the ANU including in the College of Arts and Social Sciences and the College of Business and Economics, as well as with international research networks.

Our aims include:

• Undertake high quality, interdisciplinary research on key social policy issues;
• To inform and contribute to policy-making processes and promote discussion of major social policy issues, in Australia, across the region and globally;
• Foster networks and promote collaboration between researchers, policy makers and practitioners and the community on social policy issues;

Effective communication of research findings is central to the mission of the Social Policy Institute. To achieve this, we will run and co-host a range of conferences, seminars and round-tables on social policy issues. We aim to present key research findings in accessible, policy-relevant formats; as well as producing high quality scholarly work.

Existing social research centres in the Crawford School of Public Policy including the Children’s Policy Centre and the Social Policy Action and Research Centre will continue, and the Social Policy Institute will collaborate with them and support their work.