The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) aims to advance the social sciences by fostering new modes of inquiry, developing interdisciplinary methods and expertise, and enhancing understanding of social entities and processes. Funded by private philanthropists since 2008, ISRF promotes social science development by offering funding opportunities, forming academic partnerships, and supporting research that ventures beyond existing explanations to refresh empirical problems with innovative theories or methodologies.
The ISRF's grant program focuses on funding innovative research that challenges existing explanatory frameworks to address new empirical problems without current adequate theory or investigative methodology. It encourages controversial theoretical approaches aimed at critically challenging incumbent theories and supports interdisciplinary initiatives by melding empirical methods and theoretical insights from social sciences. The program welcomes projects from a broad range of social scientific disciplines, interdisciplinary research fields, humanities, and natural sciences. Specifically, the Early Career Fellowships target scholars in Europe within 10 years of their PhD, providing up to £60,000 for a year-long relief from teaching and associated administrative duties, with possibilities for matched-funding for reasonable research expenses.