As some of the SSRC’s traditional avenues supporting this work have closed during this pandemic, we are exploring other new possibilities. To that end, while the SSRC’s facilities remain closed during this pandemic, we invite Indiana University social science faculty to submit requests for reallocation of our staff time to provide direct support to your research, particularly projects responding directly to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What SSRC staff can do

SSRC staff have experience in social science research project management, qualitative and mixed-methods research, survey tools, and transcription. Some examples of the types of support SSRC staff may be able to provide include:

• Basic administrative, logistical, and/or project management support

• Qualitative data collection (e.g. interviews)

• Basic Qualtrics survey programming

• Interview transcription

If there are additional research needs that aren’t on the above list, send us an email to see if we may be able to meet them.

How to Request Our Support

Send us an email telling us about your project and how we might be able to help. What tasks can we assist with? About how many hours of work would you need, and for how long?

If we receive more requests than we can meet, we’ll prioritize the following types of projects:

• Social science projects responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

• Projects with broad, interdisciplinary interest and/or community contributions

• Projects which best align with existing staff expertise and availability

• Projects for which SSRC staff support is necessary for the project to move forward

• Projects with a plan for moving forward once the SSRC’s normal operations and staff responsibilities resume.

All of our consulting partners continue to offer their services remotely. Contact information for each of the groups is below. If you need assistance and you're not sure which of the below groups would best fit your needs, please call or email the SSRC and we'll be happy to direct you!

• Indiana Statistical Consulting Center: Request a consultation via web form.
• Biostatistics Consulting Center: Request a consultation via web form.
• Center for Survey Research: Request a consultation via web form.
• OVPR Proposal Development Services: Request a consultation via email.
• UITS Research Applications: Request a consultation via web form.
• SSRC Qualitative Methods and Tools Consulting: Request a consultation via email.

The Qualitative Data Analysis Laboratory is currently closed, including the lab space and the equipment check-out system. We are working to provide access to a Virtual Qualitative Data Analysis Laboratory for researchers who need to access specialized software. We will post updates as they become available; in the meantime, please email ssrc@indiana.edu with any questions.

The Interdisciplinary Experimental Laboratory facility is currently closed. 

The Restricted-Access Data Remote Server (RADaRS) is currently available for current researchers and projects, but data custodian services are limited to those necessary to support Essential Research Activities. Email the RADaRS team or contact the SSRC by phone for more information or assistance.

The Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at IUPUI, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at IU Bloomington have temporarily delayed all internal funding competitions and funding decisions unrelated to COVID-19 until such time that social distance and travel restrictions are eased, if not lifted entirely. The SSRC is thus not able to accept research grant applications at this time.

The Kentucky Research Data Center is currently closed (along with all other centers in the FSRDC system). The KRDC's Administrator, Charles Hokayem, continues to support researchers' applications remotely; contact him by email. Likewise, the SSRC continues to provide assistance and to accept applications for KRDC grants to support research once the KRDC facility reopens to researchers.

Researchers are still able (and encouraged!) to access data resources from off-campus. If you have trouble accessing these resources, contact us for more assistance.

• Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR): Off-campus access to download ICPSR data is available to IU affiliates, but users must first create an account through an IU internet connection, such as the IU VPN, and/or have logged in from an IU internet connection in the last six months.  
• Roper Center for Public Opinion: Off-campus access to search and download Roper Center holdings is available to IU affiliates. Connect to the IU VPN or use this link through IU Libraries to authenticate using your IU credentials.

While the SSRC is not open for in-person events, we're happy to support and/or share information about webinars and other virtual events for the social science community. We maintain the Social Science Community Calendar and will use it to share information about such events. If you have an event you'd like to submit, suggest it to the "Social Science Community" calendar through the events.iu.edu system, or send us an email. 

With our physical facilities closed, we'll rely more heavily on our website, social media, email, videoconferencing, and phone to keep in touch with social scientists.

If you're not already on our mailing lists, sign up for them here. 

If you're looking for assistance other than the resources listed here, please reach out by email or phone.