Research Centers

The ability of the University to draw together faculty and students from across disciplinary boundaries is an indication of the maturity of the research context at Boston College. Several centers play an important role in the intellectual life of the University.

• Institute for Scientific Research
  The Institute for Scientific Research (ISR) at Boston College embodies the university's motto Ever to Excel. It has been and continues to be at the forefront of creative research by developing and using sophisticated analysis tools to explain various physical phenomena.
  ISR's professional staff holds advanced degrees in geophysics, mathematics, applied mathematics, physics, engineering and applied statistics. Over the course of its history, the Institute has utilized this diversity of knowledge to develop highly sophisticated techniques for analyzing raw scientific and engineering data and presenting it in meaningful and useful ways. Using state-of-the-art analytical tools and technology including computer-generated modeling, the Institute is a forerunner in scientific data analysis and interpretation using statistical data analysis, digital signal processing and image processing; mathematical signal modeling; animated visualization of real and simulated data; the manipulation and interpretation of scientific images; and the design of specialized databases, data management techniques and interactive scientific software.
  • Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College

   

• Social Welfare Research Institute
  The Social Welfare Research Institute (SWRI) is a multidisciplinary research center specializing in the study of spirituality, wealth, philanthropy, and other aspects of cultural life in an age of affluence. Founded in 1970, SWRI is a recognized authority on the relation between economic wherewithal and philanthropy, the motivations for charitable involvement, and the underlying meaning and practice of care.
  • Social Welfare Research Institute Home Page

   

• Center for Corporate Community Relations
  The Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations is an international corporate membership organization. We partner with businesses worldwide to strengthen their community relationships and investments to achieve healthy, sustainable communities in which to live, work and do business. We do this through research, policy and education that build knowledge of the interdependence of community vitality and business success.
  • Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations

   

• Center for Work and Family
  The Boston College Center for Work and Family, located within the Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, is a research organization dedicated to increasing the quality of life of working families by promoting the responsiveness of workplaces and communities to their needs. The Center uses three core strategies to pursue its mission: research, workplace partnerships, and communication & information services.
  The Center's primary focus is conducting applied research that addresses a range of work/family issues.
  • Boston College Center for Work and Family

   

• Center for Retirement Research
  The goals of the Center for Retirement Research are to promote research on retirement issues, to transmit new findings to the policy community and the public, to help train new scholars, and to broaden access to valuable data sources. Through these initiatives, the Center hopes to forge a strong link between the academic and policy communities around an issue of critical importance of the nation’s future.
  • Boston College Center for Retirement Research

   

• Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy
  The Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy (CSTEEP) is an educational research organization located at Boston College in the School of Education. Since its inception in 1980, CSTEEP has conducted research on:

  • testing, evaluation, and public policy
  • studies to improve school assessment practices
  • and international comparative research.

  CSTEEP conducts its work on both small and large scales, working with individual schools, districts, states, as well as countries to advance educational testing practices and policy, and to improve the quality and fairness of education. CSTEEP's professional staff includes nationally and internationally recognized experts in educational measurement, large-scale assessment, evaluation, and policy issues. In addition, CSTEEP's staff includes faculty from the Graduate School of Education's Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation program.

  • CSTEEP: Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Educational Policy

   

• Center for Child, Family and Community Partnerships
  The mission of the Center is to integrate the strengths of the University and of the community in order to, together, promote the positive development of children, youth, and families. Through activities such as technical assistance, asset mapping, needs assessment, evaluation, consultation, demonstration research, life-long education, program design, and assessment, the Center collaborates with all sectors of the community--including schools, local and state government, business and industry, community organizations, agencies, and NGOs--to envision, enact, and sustain effective and appropriately-scaled programs and policies that promote development in ways valued by the community.
  The Center terms this approach to community-university partnerships outreach scholarship, and pursues such work in order both to make a direct contribution to the lives of individuals and families and develop a model of how universities may use their abilities to generate, transmit, preserve, and apply knowledge to enhance the life chances of diverse children and families. The Center forms partnerships at local, state, national, and international levels in order to understand the generality of the model that it is building.
  • Center for Child, Family and Community Partnerships Home Page

   

   

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