The Research Centre was born out of a growing awareness that the R&D capacity of the philanthropic sector is very weak. The Office of the Third Sector, with ESRC, Carnegie UK Trust and the Scottish Executive, with input from other funders and organisations in the third sector, have come together to create a national research centre designed to promote research and professional development in charitable giving and philanthropy.
The Centre aims to:
- conduct and promote high quality research on giving and philanthropy;
- foster creative knowledge exchange between academic and practice communities;
- develop and disseminate the evidence base to inform policy and practice;
- build the field through training new researchers; encourage the development of sector research capacity;
- work internationally and in a multi-disciplinary way.
Professor Jenny Harrow and Professor Cathy Pharoah have been appointed as Co-Directors of the Centre, to bring collective academic and practice experience to the role,and demonstrate the Centre’s commitment to working across academic and practicecommunities. The Centre is chaired by Professor Nicholas Deakin and has a steering committee whose membership represents academic, voluntary sector, government and business worlds.
See pictures of the Centre's launch on 1 October 2008.
To find out more about the Centre visit the ESRC website.