The CISP, an affiliate of the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Beijing Normal University, was officially established in June 2009. The CISP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research and development, education and advisory organization, engaged in research, teaching, and policy promotion. It dedicates itself to cultivating highly qualified talents in the theory and practice of social policy, to carrying out comprehensive social policy research, to promoting the establishment of a new and integrated framework of social policy, to pushing forward the change and transformation of China's social policy, and to creating a world-class think-tank. Its goals will be achieved through the following:

-- conducting real-time monitoring, analysis and forecasting of China's future social situation and trends;

-- participating deeply in the process of China's social policy planning, formulation and implementation;

-- following up, exploring and evaluating cases of local policy innovation;

-- criticizing and learning from international social policy theory and practical experience;

-- promoting change and the restructuring of China's social policy, and enhancing the people's livelihood and welfare.

The Institute's main tasks include:

-- to assist in the construction of social policy discipline issues and to enhance the Institute's academic and research capacities to understand these issues;

-- through empirical, original and excellent social policy research, to produce rich, practical and knowledge-based products and so transmit useful ideas, offer forward-looking and practical policy recommendations, and influence directly the trend of government policy in order to speed the transformation of research into policy;

--- to cultivate elites in the field of social policy theory and practice; to create professionals who are not only familiar with Western social policy but also Chinese social policy, practice and the characteristic features of both, in order to meet the needs of government agencies, education, research, training institutions and large and medium-sized entrepreneurial enterprises.

The Institute specializes in social welfare, social security, civil society-building, community-building and development, village self-government and democratization, rural social assistance, and disaster relief. The source subjects of research mainly include: 1) projects commissioned by national ministries and local governments; 2) projects commissioned by international organizations, foundations, enterprises and institutions; 3) co-operative projects with universities, research institutes, and think-tanks at home and abroad; 4) projects implemented by the Institute itself in order to have a significant influence on China's social development.