The social sciences at the University of Mannheim have an excellent international reputation, reflected by rankings, awards and third-party funds.

Since 2014 the Mannheim School of Social Sciences is the first and only European partner institution of the EITM Summer Institutes and provides advancing theoretical and empirical research training in form of a summer school to scholars, together with its US partners Princeton University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Duke University, Washington University in St. Louis and the National Science Foundation[3][4] The Department of Psychology has developed into one of the leading research and teaching institutions in Germany, focusing mainly on the research areas of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Consumer Psychology, Social Psychology and Cognitive Psychology.

Recently a new chair for Consumer Psychology has been established and a collaborative research center on decision-making opened.

Further research is also being conducted at the Otto-Selz-Institute (Mannheim Centre for Work and Health), which focuses on the impact of negative influences at the workplace.

The research activities of the Department of Political Science are complemented by the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 884 "Political Economy of Reforms", The Department of Political Science was one of the first universities in Germany to introduce a systematic and international study program by offering Bachelor, Master and Ph.D (doctoral) degree programs.