CSSI News & Opportunities

Greetings,

As fall settles in, we’re proud to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Center for Social Science Innovation. It’s a perfect moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. In just twelve months, CSSI has launched several research incubation programs, fostered collaboration across nine colleges, supported multiple grant-seeking efforts, advanced graduate student research, and developed a wide array of resources that are enriching the social science ecosystem at Iowa. Most importantly, we’ve shown the power of a truly campus-wide, interdisciplinary network of scholars.

All this progress is captured in our first-ever Annual Report, which we’re excited to share with you. As we begin our second year, we’re eager to build on this momentum and continue driving innovation across the social sciences.

In this issue of our newsletter, you’ll find several new opportunities and updates:

• Highlights from our recent Micro Lab co-hosted with the Research Development Office.
• Important reminders about upcoming deadlines for the Research Convergence Residency on “Research Frontiers in the Social Determinants of Mental and Physical Health” and Dissertation Completion programs
• An invitation to contribute questions to SurveyHarvest as we prepare our next national survey
• New campus funding initiatives and workshops aimed at supporting large-scale, interdisciplinary research

Thank you for your continued partnership and support. We look forward to another year of collaboration and discovery.

Mark Berg
Director, Center for Social Science Innovation 
Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology  

CSSI released its 2024-2025 Annual Report, highlighting a year of innovation, collaboration, and measurable impact across numerous initiatives. Explore how CSSI's work continues to advance its mission and shape the future of UI-sponsored social science research.

CSSI News and Opportunities

Micro Lab connects researchers from nine UI colleges to discuss social determinants of health

In partnership with the Research Development Office, CSSI hosted a Micro Lab on the Social Determinants of Mental and Physical Health. Researchers from nine different UI colleges – from CLAS to Carver to Tippie – came together to discuss pressing research puzzles in the social determinants of human health.

Want to connect with this group? Take the networking survey.

Reminder! Applications for Research Convergence Residency Program due October 13th

Building from its recent Micro Lab, CSSI is seeking applications for the Research Convergence Residency Program, with the 2025 theme: Research Frontiers in the Social Determinants of Mental and Physical Health. Selected applicants will receive brief trainings on team-science, building space for collaborative work, staff support, and $4000 in research support funds.  

Learn more about RCRP.  

CSSI invites UI graduate students to apply for Dissertation Completion Program by October 13th

CSSI seeks graduate students from across disciplines to take part in its Dissertation Completion Program. Participants receive dedicated workspaces to focus on their projects, direct support from CSSI staff, opportunities for professional development, and more.

Learn more about DCP.

SurveyHarvest: 10 questions sold for next survey; 25 questions remain available

CSSI is preparing to deploy its next survey to a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. adults. For just $200 per question, this is your chance to join the survey deployment and get actionable insights on your research topic of interest.

Plant your questions today and watch your research grow.

Campus Opportunities for Social Science Researchers

UI researchers can apply for large grant development funds

The Office of the Vice President for Research invites applications for funding that enables teams of researchers to pursue large-scale interdisciplinary research grants. Teams can secure up to $310,000 across all three phases.

Building Resilient Communities Roundtable Discussion

On October 3rd, the Tippie College of Business Social Impact Community is hosting a workshop connecting researchers and professionals interested in building and supporting resilient communities.

CSSI Workshop Calendar

Data to Maps with Mainul Islam | Virtual | Wednesday, October 8, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

This workshop is designed for beginners to introduce them to the power of combining non-geospatial data with geospatial data in ArcGIS Pro. We will cover both attributes and spatial JOINs, showing how to convert tabular (non-geospatial) data with spatial layers to create meaningful maps.

Intro to Multilevel Modeling with Erica Dorman | Virtual | Friday, October 17, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

This workshop will discuss the basics of multilevel modeling. Participants will learn how nesting or clustering in data creates dependency not accounted for in general linear models.

Workflow in Stata with Meghan Rogers, PhD | Social Sciences Research Building | Tuesday, October 21, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

Designed for graduate students, early-career researchers, and faculty, the session introduces practical strategies for managing projects efficiently and reproducibly. We will cover the full workflow, from planning and documentation to file organization, variable naming, verification, and preservation, with an emphasis on reproducibility. 

Facial Emotion Recognition Part 1 with Sang Jung Kim, PhD | Virtual | Tuesday, November 4, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

This session offers an introduction to core computer vision concepts and their emerging applications in computational social science. We’ll explore how scholars are increasingly using image-based data—particularly emotional cues in visuals—to examine its impact on audience attitudes and online engagement.

Facial Emotion Recognition Part 2 with Sang Jung Kim, PhD | Social Sciences Research Building | Tuesday, November 11, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm

In the second session, participants will engage in hands-on coding to apply facial emotion recognition techniques using the Python packages FER and DeepFace.

Intro to Python Part 1 with Anindita Bandyopadhyay | Virtual | Wednesday, November 12, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

This workshop will introduce Python and foundational machine learning concepts, utilizing a dataset comprising textual content. 

Intro to Python Part 2 with Anindita Bandyopadhyay | Virtual | Wednesday, December 3, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

This workshop will delve deeper into text mining techniques and basic NLP (Natural Language Processing) approaches.