Center Resources & Services

CISS Faculty Pilot Grants – The CISS Pilot Grant program is designed to provide funding for innovative research projects that explore cutting-edge social issues, especially those that align with the Center themes of inequalities and sustainability. The Center seeks applicants from social science faculty and CISS affiliates. Applicants are encouraged to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, such as integrating concepts or methods from multiple academic disciplines, or collaborating with a co-investigator representing a distinctive methodology or field of study. Funded projects should have the potential to attract subsequent external funding, and should yield concrete products at the end of the funding period, such as peer-reviewed journal articles or a book proposal. For more information and to apply, see visit the Faculty Pilot Grant webpage.

CISS Summer Mini-Grants – The Center for Innovation in Social Science provides small grants to support faculty (tenure-track and full-time lecturers), postdocs and graduate student affiliates’ research in the social sciences. This is a rapid-turnaround process, to help facilitate Summer research productivity. The grants are intended to help foster new research or enhance in-progress projects. Types of eligible funding include (i) undergraduate research assistance (max: $2,000), (ii) research consultancies (max: $1,000), (iii) travel awards (max: $1,500), training support awards (max: $500), and Research Supplies Awards (Maximum: $750). For more information and to apply, visit our webpage.

CISS Book Manuscript Incubator Small Grants – The Center for Innovation in Social Science and the Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences invite Boston University faculty to apply for small grants to support book proposal/manuscript “incubator” workshops. These workshops provide faculty an opportunity to receive feedback on their book proposal or manuscript draft through a day-long or half-day meeting in which key readers gather to provide guidance and suggestions. The Center anticipates awarding up to four grants of up to $1,000 each for a virtual or in-person book workshop held between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. For more information and to apply, visit the Book Manuscript webpage.

CISS Paid Undergraduate Research Interns – CISS offers year-long, paid undergraduate research intern support to social science faculty and CISS affiliates. We welcome proposals for internships where an undergraduate student(s) will focus on three thematic areas: 1) social justice and inclusion, 2) inequality, and 3) sustainability. The research project should draw on social science methods and explore questions related to human society and social behavior. Priority will be given to projects that directly involve undergraduates in the analysis and/or collection of data, where data are construed broadly to encompass qualitative, quantitative, archival, digital, and other forms. Center affiliates and BU faculty from any CAS department are eligible to apply. For more information and to apply, visit our webpage.

The Center also offers research assistant recruitment support. We provide faculty, lecturer, postdoc, and graduate student researchers is assistance in identifying undergraduate or graduate research assistant candidates. Through our website, weekly digest, social media accounts, and targeted email lists, we can reach a large number of students who may be interested in applying for the research positions you have available. We can assist with producing your job ad and provide information regarding pay rates, BU rules for employing undergraduate and graduate students, and lists of candidate attributes and job responsibilities that may be relevant to your position ad. Here you will find resources to identify, fund, and hire graduate and undergraduate students. If you would like your research assistant position promoted by the Center, please email the position description to us at ciss@bu.edu.

CISS Event Funding – CISS can offer modest financial support for BU social science related events each year. We will consider funding requests in the $1-500 range. Awards are limited and first-come, first-served. Therefore, we encourage you to reach out as early as possible. If you are looking for funding for your event (for program support, visitor travel, to purchase food/non-alcoholic beverages, etc.), you can submit a request for consideration via our JotForm page.

Boston University Internal and External Funding Opportunities – The Center advertises internal and external opportunities via our newsletter and on our website. Visit our updated lists of faculty internal opportunities, faculty external opportunities, post PhD opportunities, graduate student opportunities, undergraduate opportunities. Additionally, if you are not subscribed to our Weekly Digest newsletter, subscribe via our sign up page.

Grant Review Network – This pilot program will link aspiring grant proposal writers with experienced funded researchers and members of major grant review panels. Grant seekers will prepare a one-page summary or specific aims section, and will be matched with 2-3 seasoned scholars who will provide feedback and guidance on the aims. Opportunities may be available for more extensive feedback on full proposals, contingent on the availability of expert reviewers. Faculty Affiliates and members of BU Social Science departments are eligible for participation.

Working Paper Series – The Working Paper Series makes available new research by projects and scholars affiliated with CISS. The series is intended to facilitate communication between CISS researchers and other social scientists and publicize the broad scope of CISS research activities. Working Papers are typically pre-publication manuscripts that are disseminated to stimulate comment or to make results quickly available.

Ways To Increase Your Research Impact and Visibility

• BU Experts – Boston University’s Public Relations Office has established an expert database where members of the media can find BU experts to interview for their stories. The Public Relations Office also sends a list of news articles that mention specific registered experts and BU research more generally, which the Center uses to promote your work on our website and social media pages. If you have any questions or if you are a faculty member that would like to be added to the database, please complete the form. If you are having any issues with the form, would like to update your profile, or have any questions about the database, please email public relations at pr@bu.edu.
• CISS Story Promotion – The Center has created a form to collect information about new publications, events, awards, honors, and other professional milestones of social science faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni. If you are interested in highlighting a milestone, event, etc., please fill out the form.
• Google Scholar – GoogleScholar is a great way to aggregate publications. When you create a GoogleScholar account, the Center can follow you and receive updates every time you publish and promote your work on our website and social media pages. If you are interested in creating a GoogleScholar account and would like some assistance, please email ciss@bu.edu with the subject “Google Scholar,” and one of our staff members can meet with you.
• Developing and Expanding Your Academic Social Media Presence – We are working with Sydney Gross, Assistant Dean of Communications within the College of Arts and Science, to host an event on how to develop and expand your academic social media presence. If you are interested in presenting or attending this event, please email the Center at ciss@bu.edu.

Social Science Methods Syllabus Archive The Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) is working to develop a syllabus archive for social science methodology courses offered at Boston University (both the Charles River and Medical campuses).

This archive will allow undergraduate and graduate students to strengthen their methodological training by finding a methodological course to enroll in or to syllabi to use for self-directed learning. This archive will also assist faculty advising students who need specific methodological training or help connecting faculty who are teaching courses on similar or related topics.

Reserve Center Desk Space (Faculty and Graduate Affiliates Only) Center affiliates (faculty or graduate students) are able to reserve a desk at the Center, located in the middle of campus, at 704 Commonwealth Avenue, 5th Floor. The desk is located in a shared office and is open to all CISS faculty and graduate affiliates, pending availability. Please use this link to book a desk. You can book up to two months in advance. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at ciss@bu.edu.

To become a faculty affiliate, please apply via our form. Any graduate student who is a current or former recipient of Center funding,  such as a competitive summer grant or a participant in the PhD Summer Internships in Social Sciences Program is eligible for graduate affiliate status.

Hosting An Event At The Center The Center has a mid-sized conference room with audio-visual equipment that is centrally located at 704 Commonwealth Avenue, 5th Floor. We have an oval table that seats 8-10 people comfortably and our space can accommodate as many as 30 guests in total. We view this space as a central meeting and event space for the social sciences. If you are interested in hosting a speaker, interdisciplinary research meeting, or other educational event, please complete the application form.

If you are looking for funding for your event (to pay for food, non-alcoholic beverages, etc), you can apply for competitive funding for up to $150 in event funding at the link at the prompt in your room request.. Funding and space are first come, first serve and therefore, we encourage you to reach out as early as possible.

Allocation and Priority 

• All requests must come via the online request form. Space requests require approximately 48-hours for processing.  No approval is considered final until written confirmation is received. 
• We view the CISS conference space as a central meeting and event space for the social sciences. Therefore, CISS events will take precedence with additional social science events being assigned first-come, first-served. Non-affiliated requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis. 

Use of space 

• The CISS conference space should be returned to the condition in which it was found. 

• • Return furniture to its original home,
  • Place all trash and recycling in appropriate receptacles,
  • If opened, ensure all windows are closed and locked, 
  • Ensure AV equipment is turned off and any remotes, etc. returned to their storage spaces. 
  • Per University policy, smoking is prohibited. 

Hiring Graduate and Undergraduate Students
The Center also offers research assistant recruitment support. We provide faculty, lecturer, postdoc, and graduate student researchers is assistance in identifying undergraduate or graduate research assistant candidates. Through our website, weekly digest, social media accounts, and targeted email lists, we can reach a large number of students who may be interested in applying for the research positions you have available. We can assist with producing your job ad and provide information regarding pay rates, BU rules for employing undergraduate and graduate students, and lists of candidate attributes and job responsibilities that may be relevant to your position ad. Here you will find resources to identify, fund, and hire graduate and undergraduate students. If you would like your research assistant position promoted by the Center, please email the position description to us at ciss@bu.edu.

Administrative Support for Hosting Visiting Researchers and Visiting Students The Center can provide administrative support for a limited number of visiting researchers or students. If you are planning to mentor (and financially support if required) a visiting researcher or student, the Center can work with your department administrator to help with the paperwork processing. We will also be able to offer shared office space to a limited number of individuals.  However, we do not have financial resources to support their travel, computing, research funds or other expenses. If you are interested in using Center administrative resources, please email ciss@bu.edu, CCing your department administrator, with the subject “CISS Visiting Researcher Support.”