Acting  as  an  independent  research  institute,  ZSI  and its staff cover a broad range of research activities from  basic  on  to  applied  and  trans-disciplinary  research  in  different fields.  ZSI research projects may be characterised by the following features:

• Collaboration of researchers from different disciplines, mainly from social sciences and humanities;
• Research projects exhibit different structures and sizes;
• For financial support various funding schemes are approached;
• Deployment of well established as well as innovative methodologies of data collection and analysis;
• By thematic fields research conducted by ZSI addresses grand challenges of the 21st century; as well as
• Involvement of a wide spectrum of target groups in  all societal sectors.