The Social Research Center (SRC) was established in 1953. Over the last five decades, the SRC has been committed to carrying out multidisciplinary research on a broad range of subjects, engaging in capacity building of students and researchers in Egypt and the region, and striving to reach its aims and goals.

The mission of the SRC is to conduct and encourage multidisciplinary social science research in Egypt and the Arab region. This mission is fulfilled through the center’s two main activities, namely conducting research and building capacities. The center is engaged in a variety of research projects at both the national and regional levels, and has a distinct reputation for carrying out high-quality field studies and in-depth analytical research. It has also excelled in the area of building social research capacities for students, scholars and organizations engaged in social science research in the region.

The center strives to inform policy formulation and implementation while contributing to knowledge in the social sciences. It aims to contribute to developing skills and building institutional capacity in the region, as well as to advancing public debate about important issues.

The center does not carry out research on a for-profit basis and does not undertake any confidential research. It does not accept funding from any sources that cannot be publicly acknowledged. All research is designed to assure the rights of subjects to confidentiality and informed consent.

 

Vision

The SRC’s vision is to consolidate its standing in Egypt and the Arab region as the leading multidisciplinary social research center engaged in high-quality, cutting-edge and policy-relevant research that contributes to the service and development of society. The center strives to support and partner with national, regional and international counterparts.

 

Funding and Partnerships

The recent past has seen two new developments. Firstly, the SRC has begun to serve as a partner institution with a number of international bodies. As a partner, the SRC has been chosen to support the various external institutional programs in specified areas and is able to receive direct funding from these institutions without a competitive process. Another recent development is the center’s involvement in joint fundraising with the government. This is a positive development, providing previously untapped funding opportunities and fostering stronger linkages between research and policy making.

During the past five years, the SRC has served 63 grants, totaling $8,286,221, of which $6,840,364 were raised through 53 new grants. For a total listing of all projects carried out by the center, visit www.aucegypt.edu/src.

The Social Research Center is especially thankful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation for supporting the center with endowments and gifts, as well as core support. Furthermore, the following foundations and organizations have supplied grants in the recent past:

Canadian International Development (CIDA)	United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Central Bank of Egypt	United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
UK Department for International Development (DFID)	United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat)
Ford Foundation	UN Women
Wellcome Trust	USAID
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation	World Health Organization (WHO)
World Bank

 

WHAT WE DO

 

Research: Background and Current Agenda

In the early years of its existence, research projects carried out by the Center included Ethnographic Studies of the Resettlement of the Nubians displaced by the High Dam of Aswan, Resettlement in the Delta region, Agricultural Labor and Cooperation and Family Planning programs. A complete list of all projects can be found in our projects page.

All our research initiatives have always reflected national and regional concerns, and have demonstrated SRCs continuing contribution to the formulation of public policies and informed public debate. As social research has expanded in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab Region, the Social Research Center has sought to consolidate its position as a leading focal point of development and policy related research by broadening the scope of its own research and strengthening its relations with other research centers in the region.

During the last decade, research on health, gender, poverty, agriculture, finance and education has been carried out. Our researchers are free to choose themes which fall within their specific sphere of interest within the broad scope of scientifically relevant issues related to the work of the center. Some of these themes have received attention and emphasis during a long period and projects in such fields have attracted attention from researchers and grantors alike. Among the thematic themes that recently have received special emphasis of the research carried out by the Social Research Center are the following five carefully chosen programmatic directions.

a. Gender and women empowerment (regional)

b. Health inequities and their policy implications (regional)

c. Poverty and social policies (Egypt)

d. Investment climate assessment (ICA) (Egypt)

e. Agriculture and rural development

The most important thing to note here is that SRC's high quality research is relevant and responsive to development needs, and gets translated into policies and actions. This has allowed SRC to build a distinctive reputation within the scholarly and action communities in both Egypt and the Arab region.

 

Training and Capacity Building

SRC offers many training workshops with a focus on research and analytical skills in social sciences and addressing issues of human development and health improvement strategies. One of these, the workshop on “Social Science Research Methods” is the only training of its kind in the region addressing development concerns in the Arab region as well as building researchers capacities in the area of quantitative, qualitative and evaluation research. It is famous for its teaching techniques and approach putting special attention on practical applications and hands on experiences.

SRC contributes notably to capacity building not only by conducting the above mentioned training courses, but also by engaging student and graduate student research assistants, who get practical and substantive research training by working on research projects under the supervision of one or more of SRC’s research faculty.