Acceptance speech: 18th Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in the Social Sciences

Acceptance speech by René Bautista, of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, winner of the 2025 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences, who was honored alongside the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan for “their contributions to the objective and continuous measurement of public opinion and social life,” according to the award citation.

Bautista highlights the importance of measuring social life with scientific rigor as an essential condition for better understanding the dynamics, needs and transformations of contemporary societies. He emphasizes that data quality not only contributes to the advancement of knowledge, but also strengthens public trust in research and in the institutions that produce it. He also underlines the role of empirical evidence as a key tool for guiding decisions and fostering social progress.