The Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies (ISS), University of Warsaw

The Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies was founded in January 1991 as an independent research unit of the University of Warsaw. Most senior members of the Institute staff hold permanent positions in the University of Warsaw departments. The ISS is affiliated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and is a member of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

ISS is an interdisciplinary, research-focused institution that brings together sociologists, psychologists, economists, and political scientists. Its research and training activities are carried out by various centers, including the Center for Psychological Research, the Center for Political Research, the Centre for Social Research Methodology, the Center for Economic Research, the Center for Sociological Research, the Center of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, the Center for Complex Systems and New Technologies, the Social Challenges Unit, and the Inter-Institute Laboratory for Comparative Value Systems Research.

Staff research interests span a wide range of social, economic, and political phenomena from multiple theoretical and empirical perspectives.

The institute manages both the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the World Values Survey (WVS). Historically, it also conducted the Polish General Social Survey series.

Additionally, ISS operates the Polish Social Data Archive and, in cooperation with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw (ICM UW), contributes to Poland’s nationwide social data infrastructure known as the Social Data Repository (RDS). This provides access to both quantitative and qualitative research data in the field of social sciences.