To build a connected and collaborative ecosystem where humanities and social research contributes meaningfully to knowledge, culture, policy, practice and society.
Our vision is not simply to increase the quantity of research.
It is to strengthen the quality, relevance, accessibility, collaboration and continuity of knowledge.
We envision a research ecosystem in which:
a researcher can find the right collaborators for an emerging question;
a student can move from learning research methods to participating in research;
universities can collaborate beyond institutional boundaries;
communities can contribute their lived experiences and knowledge to research;
valuable cultural and community knowledge can be documented and preserved;
data and research outputs can be made discoverable and useful;
institutions can access credible research for decision-making;
and research findings can travel beyond academic publications into public discourse, policy and practice.
HRL therefore sees research not as an isolated activity, but as an ecosystem of people, questions, evidence, knowledge and relationships.
Our Mission
To build the largest collaborative ecosystem for humanities and social research by connecting researchers, institutions, communities, data and knowledge for societal impact.
The mission has five interconnected dimensions.
We connect people, institutions and ideas.
Research becomes more meaningful when different perspectives meet. HRL creates pathways between researchers, universities, students, communities, practitioners, policy institutions, industry and other knowledge stakeholders.
We enable quality research and evidence.
HRL supports research projects, thematic research programs, methodologies, data capabilities and research support systems that help researchers pursue important questions with intellectual and methodological rigor.
We enable collaboration across disciplines, sectors and regions.
Many contemporary social questions cannot be adequately understood from a single disciplinary perspective. Interdisciplinary collaboration can bring together different methods, conceptual frameworks and forms of knowledge. Research on complex societal problems increasingly recognizes the importance of such cross-disciplinary approaches.
We preserve knowledge, culture and heritage.
Research is not only about producing something new. It is also about ensuring that valuable knowledge, memories, practices, narratives, documents and cultural expressions are not lost.
Through archives, oral histories, documentation and knowledge commons, HRL seeks to contribute to the preservation and accessibility of collective knowledge.
We help research travel into policy, practice and public discourse.
Research impact is rarely a simple linear movement from a paper to a policy decision. Research and policy can influence each other, and knowledge can be interpreted and used differently by different actors.
HRL therefore approaches impact as a process of engagement, translation, dialogue and application, rather than simply measuring whether a research paper was cited by a policymaker.
