About Us
The Institute for Society, Culture and Environment's goals are to increase the quality, quantity and competitiveness of the Virginia Tech research portfolio by supporting innovative, interdisciplinary, and translational research that addresses critical human and societal concerns impacting the lives of people and places. The Institute leverages university funds to increase sponsored research and scholarship with a focus on issues of importance in the social sciences.
ISCE primarily supports faculty activities that have the potential for extramural funding. ISCE makes available financial and technical assistance that supports the development of individual faculty members and interdisciplinary teams. Since 2007, investment of over $6 million dollars has resulted in increased research productivity:
- 332 faculty members have received support
- 271+ faculty have received technical assistance
- 584 proposals have been submitted, totaling $519.5 million
- 252 awards have been received, totaling $61.7 million
- 32+ scholarly books and 249+ journal publications
(June 2020)
ISCE focuses its resources in four thematic areas, each described below.
Global Issues
Health/Human Development
Risk and Resilience
Community/Built Environment
ISCE supports nine associated centers and one research lab, offers a variety of support programs, such as it signature ISCE Scholars program, and provides capacity building activities and strategies including:
- ISCE News Flash
- Web-based Resources
- Technical Assistance
- Strong Internal Collaborations
- External Consultants
- Support for Speakers & Events
- Mentoring & Workshops
Learn more about ISCE's goals and objectives in the ISCE Strategic Plan: 2020-2024. For a quick overview of ISCE funding opportunities and support, download our 2020-2021 handout.