[3] UNRISD's location at the United Nations Office at Geneva gives researchers access to channels of policy influence through active participation in events, meetings, conferences and working groups.

[4] It was originally set up with a grant from the Government of the Netherlands, and its first Board Chair was the eminent economist Jan Tinbergen, who received the first-ever Nobel Prize for economics in 1969.

UNRISD's initial research focused on the design of indicators to measure development not just in terms of economic growth but also social factors, such as nutrition, health and education.

UNRISD's work on the so-called Green Revolution (the introduction of newly bred high-yield grain seeds to increase food production) took a typically critical view.

Globalization in the modern era and structural adjustment programmes in developing countries brought about social crises which UNRISD researched and criticized, arguing that unregulated markets required a healthy public sector and stable governance to function properly.

UNRISD's take was typically critical: whatever the benefits of conservation, it was often happening at the expense of social justice and the livelihoods of minorities.

The current research agenda[5] is shaped by three major contemporary development challenges: inequalities, conflict and unsustainable practices.

In November 2018 UNRISD held a major international conference in Geneva which convened innovative research from the global South and North.

The conference was preceded by a roundtable discussing whether elites are the engines of inequalities, featuring Naila Kabeer (London School of Economics), Saskia Sassen (Columbia University) and Jomo Kwame Sundaram (Council of Eminent Persons, Malaysia).

As part of the celebrations of its 50th anniversary, UNRISD co-hosted a conference with the ILO (International Labour Organization) in 2013 entitled "The Potential and Limits of the Social and Solidarity Economy".

The conference featured prominent speakers such as Guy Ryder, Jose Luis Coraggio, Paul Singer and Sarah Cook.

In addition to its international conferences, UNRISD organises a regular Seminar Series[7] to provide a space for open, informed and insightful conversation around contemporary issues of concern to social development research and policy.

UNRISD's independent international events, conferences, seminars and symposiums (see above) are held in order to discuss and present research findings and debates in select fields of focus.

[10] UNRISD has a small core staff, located in Geneva, Switzerland, which coordinates an international network of collaborating researchers.

The following governments have contributed to UNRISD over the past 50 years: Australia, Austria, Canada, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Yugoslavia.