the institute, founded in october 1998 with its former name the ngo center, is the first research center on ngos in china.the institute is committed to the empirical and theoretical research on the development of chinese society in the new era, and comprehensively applies the multidisciplinary theories and methods of public administration,social organization, political sociology and social psychology, and makes in-depth exploration of social organization and social governance issues. priorities are given to the following topics: social policy, social welfare, philanthropy, social security on the level of policy and system; political and social relations, social conflicts, society security, risk management on mechanism level; social values and political culture, social opinion, social networks, community governance, social services on basic level and especially the development and transformation of state-society relations in the new era. the center has worked on projects related to legislation of ngos in china, the creation of an evaluation system of ngos, professional management of ngos in the market economy, and the creation of communitybased ngos.