Our History

The two predecessors to the Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS), the Center for Humanities Research of National Taiwan University and the Social Sciences Research Center of Academia Sinica, traced the history back to 1999. In 2011, the two centers were combined into RIHSS. Based on past achievements, RIHSS continues to serve the academic community and provides a platform to cross-disciplinary scholars.

Objective

RIHSS aims to to promote the development of the humanities and social sciences in Taiwan and around the world. RIHSS, which was established by National Science and Technology Council (NSTC; formerly Ministry of Science and Technology), has been dedicated to improving academic environment, enhancing research capacity, and raising the value of the humanities and social sciences.

Mission

1. Early-stage Career Development RIHSS provides a variety of services and academic events to junior scholars to help their early career development, strengthen their research capability, and broaden their academic network. 2. Cross-disciplinary Cooperation The cross-disciplinary cooperation between the humanities and social sciences as well as that to natural science has become a worldwide trend. By building cross-disciplinary connections on related issues and promoting research methods training, RIHSS creates opportunities of cross-disciplinary research integration. 3. Regional Development Balance To implement cooperation between universities and balance regional development, RIHSS not only organizes academic events in different cities but also cooperates with different universities according to their regional featured research. In this way, RIHSS hopes to promote diverse research topics and expand the service scope. 4. Taiwan's Own Research Agenda Focusing on challenges in the current social and cross-disciplinary issues related to Taiwan's research, RIHSS organizes a series of academic events to encourage the development of featured research of the humanities and social sciences, focusing on Taiwan's own indigenous research agenda. 5. Multi-media Digital Communication In the digital age, RIHSS makes use of a variety of social media channels to increase the participation of academic communities, raise the visibility of the humanities and social sciences, and accelerate the diffusion of academic information.