Center for Retirement Research receives 65 percent increase in federal support

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (10-12-04) - The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has received $1.9 million in new funding from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to support research and dissemination on retirement income issues. This fiscal year 2005 award represents a 65 percent increase over last year's funding level. Since winning renewed SSA funding last year in a nationally competitive process, the Center has brought in $3.0 million. Since its inception in 1998, the Center has received $11.6 million from SSA and $1.6 million from corporate and foundation sources.

Alicia Munnell, the Center's Director, said that the new award is "a huge step forward. It is a clear affirmation of the Center's continuing national leadership on retirement research and dissemination." Michael Smyer, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Associate Vice President for Research, commented that "The Social Security Administration invests in the Center for Retirement Research because the Center has become the leading research center on pension policy in the country. Boston College is pleased to be leading the discussion in this important area."

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, part of a consortium that includes parallel centers at the University of Michigan and the National Bureau of Economic Research, was established in 1998 through a grant from the Social Security Administration. The goals of the Center 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 to the nationís future.