About Social Security Administration Retirement and Disability Research Consortium

The Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) is an interdisciplinary extramural policy research program funded by the Social Security Administration (SSA) through a cooperative agreement. The current five-year cooperative agreements run from FY2019 through FY2023.

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 research areas relevant to these topics.

To meet these goals, the centers will conduct research, prepare policy briefs and working papers, hold annual meetings, and provide research and training support for young scholars. In October of 2018, SSA announced the four institutions that were awarded the RDRC center designation:

• Boston College
• University of Michigan
• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Financial Security (CFS)