Goals

The main goals for the institute is to

• increase knowledge on society, its construction and development.
• contribute to increased collaboration between the different social sciences, without a sharp distinction between basic and applied research.
• train younger researchers and create good conditions for our employees to achieve a Ph.D.

The institute intends to build a staff with professional backgrounds from various social scientific disciplines and to deconstruct institutional barriers between the disciplines as far as possible. Our ambition is to study issues regarding employment, household, politics, welfare and culture in relation to one another. At the same time we strain ourselves to remain a ”common ground” where basic and applied social science unite. We consider this an insurance of academic quality and a potential for academic development. Although keeping up basic research promotes long-term projects and in-depth studies, we also see the possibilities for academic development in carrying out more pragmatic assignments on a short-term basis, still maintaining our responsibilities towards our employers. This however, demands long range planning of projects and preparation of research problems.

According to our research agenda the institute also emphasise interdisciplinary studies. This involves interdisciplinarity mainly among the social sciences. The institute holds that a strong representation of the leading social sciences in our staff is crucial, and that the different social scientific disciplines are represented in a professionally self-sustaining Recently manner. In recent years we have expanded our staff with researchers with backgrounds from various humanist traditions and law. It is our intention to maintain this broad interdisciplinary collaboration in the future.

The interplay between basic and applied research is reflected in the role the institute plays as an institute with high academic ambitions, financed by various external employers. This is also revealed by our close collaboration with The University of Oslo, The Research Council of Norway, more specialised and applied institutes as well as the different governmental departments.

Our second main task is to promote the recruiting of junior researchers and to increase professional competence, especially among younger researchers. Creating good science require long term investments when it comes to developing the competence of each individual researcher, and building solid, creative and inspiring academic environments.

The institute has three research directors responsible for the counselling of our recruiting researchers and creating a professional research environment. We want to remain a flexible organisation without clear-cut divisions between our different research units.

The institute has its own scholarship posts, making it possible for employees to achieve a Ph.D. in the same manner as other candidates for the doctorate. 17 researchers at ISF have completed their Ph.D. since 1989. At the beginning of 1999 12 scholarship holders are included in the dr. polit – programme at The University of Oslo. The interplay between basic and applied research has proved important in this context as well. Most of the doctor’s degrees concluded at ISF have been financed by external project funds or by programme funds from various fractions of The Research Council of Norway. This is another example of how applied research can contribute to an increased level of professional competence. In turn, the applied research conducted, and finally our employers, will benefit from this increased level of competence.

The institute’s agenda is established in Målsettinger for virksomheten, including the guidelines for the institute’s work over the next 3-year period. The agenda is object of evaluation every year. The current agenda direct ISF`s activity from 2006 – 2008