Human Sciences Research Council

The mission of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) is to be a research organisation that advances social sciences and humanities for public use.

The HSRC undertakes and promotes research that is often large-scale, multi-year, and collaborative in nature. It produces high-quality scientific evidence to inform further analysis, debate, advocacy and decision-making by role-players in government, the media, academia, and community-based groupings. The HSRC responds to the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups in society through its research. It develops and makes available data sets underpinning research, policy development and public discussion of developmental issues. Through its work, the HSRC aims to inform policy development and good practice, thereby making a difference to the lives of people in South Africa and on the mother continent.

The functions of the HSRC are to: initiate, undertake and foster strategic basic and applied research in human sciences; address developmental challenges in South Africa, Africa and globally by gathering, analysing and publishing data relevant to such challenges, by means of projects linked to public sector programmes; inform the effective formulation and monitoring of policy, as well as to evaluate the implementation thereof; stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of act-based research results; help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences; foster research collaboration, networks and institutional linkages; respond to the needs of marginalised groups in society through research and analysis of developmental issues, thus contributing to the improvement of their lives; develop and make available datasets underpinning research, policy development and public discussion of developmental issues; and develop new and improved methods for dataset use.