About us

Who we are

The Social Research Centre provides the Australian social research community with access to world-class research and evaluation services including research design, survey management, statistical consulting, qualitative research, data science applications, and analysis and reporting.

Our motivation stems from the desire to conduct research and evaluation of the highest quality—to enhance knowledge and contribute to informed decision-making for public good.

We work to the highest quality standards, guided by the Total Survey Error framework for quantitative research and a Quality Framework for qualitative research. By specialising solely in social and health research and evaluation we are well placed not only to better understand the demands of such research, but also to continuously improve the methods used. Our pursuit of excellence is enshrined in our mission and governing principles.

Established in 2000, our resources include:

  • 85 professionals including researchers, statisticians, analysts, data scientists and administrative staff
  • dedicated Qualitative Research and Program Evaluation Units
  • more than 200 interviewers working remotely with bilingual interviewing capability in 25 languages.

Our values

  • Impactful. Undertaking research and evaluation that makes a positive difference to people’s lives.
  • Influential. Providing methodological leadership and innovation in applied social research and evaluation.
  • Rigorous. Expertly collecting, processing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative evidence.
  • Smart. Demonstrating our corporate ethos of continuous improvement and pursuit of excellence in all our services. Employing best practices to ensure efficiency and value for money for our clients.
  • Respectful. Working collaboratively and transparently with our clients, stakeholders and each other.
  • Inclusive. Fostering a culture that supports diversity, equity and inclusion and enables employees to bring their whole selves to work.
  • Equitable. Ensuring participation and recognition of marginalised and vulnerable members of the community in our research and evaluation.
  • Empowering. Encouraging and supporting our people to reach their full potential.
  • Ethical. Working to the highest ethical standards.

Our relationship with ANU

We are owned by the Australian National University (ANU) and have unprecedented access to ANU researchers and ANU's world class research environment.

We co-founded the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM) with ANU. The Centre is based in the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU and provides significant capacity in undertaking research into applied social research and evaluation methods.

A methods paper series in being published in conjunction with CSRM, please click here to read more.

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