ICCR - The Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research Über uns

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences (ICCR) is an independent, international, non-profit research institute specialized in strategic policy analysis. The ICCR was founded in 1986 with the aim of designing and promoting interdisciplinary and transnational research based on a clear comparative methodology, an interdisciplinary academic network, a flexible organizational structure and a multidisciplinary, skilled, international, standing staff of researchers. Based in Vienna, Austria, at the crossroads between West and East, its scope of activities covers the whole of Europe and beyond.

The ICCR has accomplished nearly 100 projects, most of these as coordinator in international consortia. The biggest consortium the ICCR was leading comprised more than 30 research institutions in Europe. The staff has an international background from across Europe, India and the USA. Working languages are English, French, and German.

Research Programme

With its research programme the ICCR addresses areas it is convinced are relevant for European development. These four areas are:

Economy, Society & Environment (ESE)

European Developments: Policy & Politics (EURO)

Social Policy Analysis: Social Structures & Integration (SPA)

Science, Technology, Research & Society (STARS)

Research Area ESE - Economy, Society & Environment

The development of various physical infrastructures has long been regarded as a precondition for the economic development of countries and regions. More recently, however, a more differentiated picture has emerged; the extension of certain physical infrastructures, such as transport or electricity networks, may cause damage to the environment and give rise to social concerns. Moreover, infrastructure provision in itself is no guarantee for efficiency or quality improvements unless it is embedded in a broader policy framework, taking into account the sector as a whole and its interrelation with further reaching social, environmental and economic goals.

The research area 'Economy, Society & Environment' (ESE) of the ICCR integrates sectoral analysis in the fields of transport, electricity, water, postal services and telecommunications in research on sustainable development. This broad range of activities across sectors focuses on policy-making and policy contents in the European Union with a special emphasis on the social, environmental and economic consequences of recent trends in infrastructure sectors, such as liberalization/deregulation. Furthermore, the ICCR analyzes the societal responses to environmental change by investigating the actions, reactions and strategies of different actors.

Research Area EURO - European Developments: Policy & Politics

The task of the EURO Programme is to synthesize information of public interest deriving from specific policy-focused findings. It works on the meta-level of generalizing the findings of policy studies in specific areas carried out by the specialists of the institute.

Policy questions of specific interest to the EURO programme are:

The process of EU deepening and widening;

The creation of a European polity;

Studies on democracy;

European public services;

Public participation in decision-making.

The salient element of this science-policy interaction is the consolidation of expertise and knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. In order to promote this, the ICCR ACADEMY, part of the EURO Programme, organizes regular seminars and lectures for ICCR staff and external participants on social and political theory, economics, methodology and public policy analysis.

The EURO Programme is responsible for publications besides research reports:

The quarterly journal INNOVATION - The European Journal of Social Sciences

The ICCR Book Series: Contemporary Trends in European Social Sciences

The ICCR Working Papers Series

The ICCR Rapid Report Series

Research Area SPA - Social Policy Analysis: Social Structures & Integration

Up till now European Social Policy has tended to develop through 'negative' incentives, i.e. by way of accommodating to the implications of the internal market (in particular the free mobility of persons and services) and as a reaction to the crises of the (national) welfare state. Nation states and socio-economic interest groups organized nationally have thus slowly, albeit steadily, ceased to be the major or sole agenda-setters in social policy. Increasingly, however - and this will constitute the major challenge of the 21st century - for the demand is being leveled to articulate a coherent European Social Policy including a stance on the role of the state as regulator and, specifically, the extent to which the latter can continue to 'correct' the inequality arising from the operations of the free market. Future European Social Policy will have to consider the role of civil society in the process of European integration as well as the changing face of 'inequality', as new risk groups are emerging, not least among the working population. Social policy research at the ICCR contributes to this new agenda of European Social Policy.

Research Area STARS - Science, Technology, Research & Society

Research, science and technology policy play an important role in the making of the European integration process. From a social sciences' perspective science and technology policy has major implications not only for the economic development, but for social policy as well. The Centre, then still a laboratory, was one of the first social science institutions in Europe to recognise that the term 'sustainability' - at that time only used by biologists - relates to technology as much as to social sphere. The very first studies of the ICCR dealt with social participation in the innovation process; the responsiveness of science and research organisations to environmental change; and the social and environmental concerns relating to innovation.