Research overview

Researchers working on laptops and talking to each other at a retreat organised by our facilitation team

Our research vision

Our mission is to be a world-leading provider of cutting-edge humanities and social sciences research that impacts and drives global innovation and policy. Our span of expertise enables us to offer both a uniquely comprehensive disciplinary grounding and an unrivalled breadth of pathways for research specialisation. 

One of our principal research strengths is our diversity. Our disciplines range from deep history to close engagement with contemporary social, economic, and cultural issues. We bring a global perspective to most research questions, deepened by the presence of the University’s interdisciplinary centres for Area Studies and for Development Studies.

Research support

Our School research support teams work across areas including grants, funding, impact, culture, policy and facilitation, to give strategic lift and support to both disciplinary research that is intrinsically linked to the core identities and priorities of our departments and faculties, as well as interdisciplinary research within the School and wider.

Our Research Funding and Strategic Initiatives teams support both the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. You can find out more about the team, their initiatives and the support they offer on the AHSS Research Funding and Strategic Initiatives website.

Research Framework

The HSS Research Framework is major new initiative which aims to exploit interdisciplinary connections across the School and beyond, as potential stimulus to new research-led teaching, with a view to fostering philanthropic support or major funding bids. The School of the Humanities and Social Sciences has established a suite of broad thematic groups designed to promote our diverse research activity. Led by one of our Academic Project Directors, this initiative aims to foster closer connections between researchers, and across disciplines; offer improved avenues of communication; and strengthen the environment for collaborative research.