Herbert Simon Research Institute
There is an increasing need for studying complex societal problems, for which we need expertise which crosses the boundaries of a specific department. In order to stimulate and facilitate cooperation between the departments, the Herbert Simon Research Institute for ‘Health, Well-being and Adaptiveness’ (HSRI) was founded.
Vision
The Herbert Simon Research Institute for health, well-being and adaptiveness is a research center devoted to carrying out excellent state of the art research in order to contribute to healthy and resilient people who are able to manage their life, in light of social, physical and emotional challenges and to contribute to resilient societies and organizations that are able to adapt to todays and future developments. Its core values are based upon understanding and advancing society, a passion for truth, reliability, and integrity, while using advanced methods.
Mission
The Herbert Simon Research Institute for health, well-being and adaptiveness conducts excellent research to obtain knowledge that will increase the well-being of individuals, teams, organizations and society and their ability to adapt to a changing (living and working) environment.
The function of the Herbert Simon Research Institute is twofold:
1. Facilitating research programs
The Institute facilitates the existing research programs of all nine departments within the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The facilities, as provided by the Vice Dean for Research ( at the same time acting director of HSRI), the research support team (RST), grant support and Graduate school, encompass amongst others: Stimulating research cooperation and grant applications; registration and analysis of research output and -quality, producing annual reports and other relevant overviews; introducing PhD students, supervising PhD education plans and managing the different courses of the graduate school; approval of supervision and PhD committees, graduation ceremonies, policy support etc.
More about the Visiting fellowship program
2. Strengthening research profile
The Institute is focused on the building of a stronger research profile. Next to the research programs of the nine departments and related institutes such as CORPS, CIR, TIBER and PMC, we have selected 3 themes, which involve the cooperation between various departments, and which address actual themes in need of both fundamental and applied research (impact). We expect that by profiling these themes this will not only increase internal cooperation among the nine departments, but also the attractiveness of our school for teaming up with partners of the other TiU schools and external partners, both at the national as well as international level.
More about these cross-cutting themes
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Herbert Simon (1916- 2001)
American economist and political scientistHerbert Simon was among the earliest scientists to analyze the architecture of complexity. He was convinced that this analysis is only possible by integrating the knowledge of different disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, economy, political science, management and organizational theory, all disciplines that are covered by TSB and Tilburg University. He advocates an interdisciplinary research approach for the study of society and its institutions. Therefore, Herbert Simon is the right person to be associated with as TSB wants to study complex societal problems in a more integral way and seek to connect the expert knowledge, experience and related research networks of all nine research programs/departments. We are proud that we are allowed to use his name and heritage for our research institute. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978 and the Turing Award in 1975.
