CQUniversity is confident it will get plenty of value from its annual $185,000 contribution as a founding member of the new Queensland Centre for Social Science Innovation.

Our Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) Chad Hewitt says our University has strengths in this area that will translate into QCSSI project opportunities for our researchers.

He was commenting this week following Premier Anna Bligh's announcement of the 'new world-class research hub'.

CQUniversity will contribute its world-class expertise in Health and Medical Sciences to the QCSSI, supported by state-of-the-art facilities; including the Population Research Laboratory at the Institute for Health and Social Science Research.

Ms Bligh announced that her Government's $5 million commitment over the next five years will be matched collectively by five universities, including CQUniversity, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University and James Cook University.  The QCSSI will be based at The University of Queensland with nodes at participating universities.

"The idea is to do for the social sciences what we have done for the biosciences, under our Smart State agenda," Ms Bligh said. "We want to see Queensland as a world leader in social science research, attracting national and international experts to undertake leading edge, applied social science."

The Premier said around 75 per cent of the Queensland Government budget is directed to social and human services, like education and health.

"Targeted, relevant research will ensure that the best use is made of this substantial financial investment, to improve quality of life for Queenslanders."

Likely research projects for QCSSI's first year include:

• Indigenous health and wellbeing in Queensland, including the Closing the Gap agenda.
• Identifying and building individual and community resilience and effective governance in response to disasters, climate change and environmental risk. This would be built on existing projects and data but also include new surveys and data collection.
• Studies of factors affecting educational achievement over the lifecourse (pre-school, school and post-secondary), with a willingness to consider a specific project requested by Education Queensland.

In a Queensland first, QCSSI researchers will have access to anonymous data from the Office for Economic and Statistical Research under strict protocols, enabling new research opportunities through access to never-before-seen data sets.