Economic and Social Research Institute
Research Institute in Dublin, Ireland
The Economic and Social Research Institute (Institiúid Taighde Eacnamaíochta agus Sóisialta in Irish) is an Irish research institute founded in 1960 to provide evidence-based research used to inform public policy debate and decision-making. The research of the institute focuses on the areas of sustainable economic growth and social progress. Martina Lawless is the Director of the institute.
History
The institute was founded in 1960 by a group of senior academics and public servants, led by T. K. Whitaker, Secretary of the Department of Finance. While conducting an economic study of Ireland, Whitaker became aware of the necessity for an independent research organisation to conduct analysis of data using up-to-date quantitative techniques in order to make the data useful for public policy makers. The US-based Ford Foundation provided seed funding to establish the Economic Research Institute in 1960. In 1966 the remit of the institute was expanded to include social research and the name changed to Economic and Social Research Institute. The first Director of the institute was Roy C. Geary, Irish statistician and founder of the Central Statistics Office.
Mission of the institute and fields of study
The mission of the institute is to produce economic and social research that informs public policymaking and civil society, in order to achieve its vision of "Informed policy for a better Ireland". The institute makes significant contributions across its 12 designated areas of research: macroeconomics; internationalisation and competitiveness; energy and environment; communications and transport; labour markets and skills; migration, integration and demography; education; taxation, welfare and pensions; social inclusion and equality; health and quality of life; children and young people; and behavioural economics.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5333436. VIAF identifies the subject as 136041039. The Library of Congress control number is n80085256. Authority coordinates are 53.345, -6.242. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Economic and Social Research Institute” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.