Philomathia Social Sciences Research Programme

A partnership for the Social Sciences

Cambridge University, a world-leading institution with strengths across physical, biological, medical and technological research, and in the humanities and social sciences, provides an unparalleled setting for collaborative research, addressing some of the major issues facing humanity today.    

The School of the Humanities and Social Sciences has recently embarked on an ambitious programme to develop its social science research agenda, with a goal of increasing involvement with public policy makers, and building its capacity in the quantitative research methods that are favoured by those driving evidence-based policy-making. 

A generous donation from the Philomathia Foundation has enabled the creation of a pioneering new research group, focused in the first instance on Human Values and Distributive Justice.  This group is concerned with the conflicting ethical values underpinning social policy, and the distribution of the world’s resources between groups and across generations.  Using quantitative methods and large datasets, the group will assess the implications of the choices that are made on the basis of different prescriptive assumptions about human values.