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Extramural Projects

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Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC)

The RDRC is an interdisciplinary extramural research program funded by the Social Security Administration (SSA) through 5-year cooperative agreements. The RDRC has three main goals:

  • Research and evaluate a wide array of topics related to Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs and related federal policies;
  • Disseminate information on these topics to policymakers, researchers, stakeholder organizations, and the general public; and
  • Provide training and education to scholars and practitioners in relevant research areas.

All RDRC research and activities must be relevant to one of SSA's program areas or populations. In addition, each fiscal year (FY) SSA provides the centers with research focal areas:

The current agreements run from FY 2019 through FY 2023 with centers at:

Visit the centers' websites for the latest project details and related information. For general RDRC inquiries, e-mail us.

Read More About…
RRC & DRC history and research contributions in the Social Security Bulletin or view annual meeting archives.

Prior to 2019, SSA funded two separate extramural research programs: the Retirement Research Consortium (RRC) and the Disability Research Consortium (DRC). The RRC consisted of centers at BC, NBER, and UM, and the DRC consisted of centers at Mathematica and NBER. Past RRC/DRC projects and working papers can be found on the centers RDRC websites (see above) and on the Mathematica's Center for Studying Disability Policy website.

Survey Support

SSA also jointly funds with other federal agencies a number of surveys and programs that support the research function, including:

Contractor Reports

Previous studies conducted by other organizations under contract with SSA are available here.