CROLS is co-hosting a major national conference on social sciences and policy from 1 to 2 December 2009. 

The Annual Conference of the Irish Social Sciences Platform, of which CROLS is a founding member, focuses on ways in which social sciences research impacts on policy-making at all levels, including that by state bodies and by government itself.  This is the largest social science conference in Ireland this year.

Recent upheavals in the global economy present challenges and opportunities for social science research, as there is often an uneasy relationship between researchers and policy makers. Research is typically inspired by a desire to explain and understand and policy makers are usually concerned with quick solutions to current problems.  There is general agreement that research should have a significant role in policy making.  We can, however, ask whether the way social science research is organized and presented can be effectively used by policy makers and we can also ask whether the policy making process is making the best use of researchers skills and knowledge.  This conference aims to stimulate discussion and debate on these questions and suggest ways in which the use of social science research in policy making might be improved through the sharing of information, ideas and perspectives. 

The Irish Social Sciences Platform is an all-island platform of integrated social science research and graduate training focusing on the social, cultural, and economic transformations shaping Ireland in the 21st century.  It was funded by the Irish Government under the auspices of the HEA's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, Cycle 4, in what was the largest single financial investment in social sciences research in the history of the state.  NUI Galway is the largest of eight institutional collaborators in the ISSP, represented by six of its foremost social science research centres.  As well as CROLS, the Galway contributors to ISSP are: the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC), the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, the Child and Family Research Centre, the Irish Centre for Rural Transformation and Sustainability (ICERTS), and the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology.