Conferences were jointly organised with the Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Ford Foundation funded comparative policy-oriented research on the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia.

In 1963, the Nuffield Foundation funded a five-year survey of British race relations, which commissioned 41 pieces of research, and published its findings as Colour and Citizenship by Jim Rose.

The IRR, centrally located in Jermyn Street in London’s West End, had more than 30 staff, a full book publishing programme, a library and information service and domestic and international research units.

[3][4] By the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, a period in which governments had begun to introduce restrictive immigration laws and politician Enoch Powell had made a series of emotive speeches on the subject of racial conflict, the staff and a section of the membership of the IRR began to question the type of research being undertaken at IRR, whether the organisation was in fact as impartial as it claimed to be and if working so closely with politicians and the government could benefit the victims of racism.

It moved from the West End to a disused warehouse on Pentonville Road, London, N1, where a tiny staff augmented by volunteers continued to run all its services.

[10] Those who have served on its Editorial Board include Eqbal Ahmad, John Berger, Victoria Brittain, Malcolm Caldwell, Jan Carew, Basil Davidson, Thomas Lionel Hodgkin, Orlando Letelier, Manning Marable, Colin Prescod, Cedric Robinson, Edward Said and Chris Searle.

[11] The IRR since its transformation carries out small-scale ad hoc pieces of research on pressing aspects of racism, the results of which have been published as pamphlets and reports.

How not to prevent violent extremism (2009) examined the government’s counter-terrorism programme; and Integration, Islamophobia and Civil Rights in Europe were published in 2008.

As of 2011: Other members of IRR's Council of management: Naima Bouteldja, Lee Bridges, Victoria Brittain, Tony Bunyan, David Edgar, Paul Grant, Gholam Khiabany, Herman Ouseley, Naina Patel, Fizza Qureshi, Danny Reilly, Cilius Victor.