The Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center (IBRC) is Duke University’s premier experimental research lab for social and behavioral science designed to help researchers move from idea to data. Housed within the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), the IBRC brings together modern facilities, expert staff support, and access to a diverse participant pool, all in one place.
Open to all Duke faculty, postdocs, grad students, and undergraduate researchers, the IBRC makes it easier to launch, scale, and complete high-quality research projects. Whether you are piloting a new study, collecting data for a dissertation or senior thesis, or running a complex experimental design, the IBRC is built to support your work, at no cost for space or resources.
Why Researchers Choose the IBRC
The IBRC removes common barriers to experimental research by combining space, people, and funding into a single, researcher-friendly center located at the Erwin Mill building. By centralizing resources, the IBRC allows you to spend less time troubleshooting logistics and more time generating insights that matter.
The IBRC offers a flexible, fully equipped research environment that supports a wide range of experimental and psychophysiological methods. These resources make it possible to conduct your experimental research without needing to secure or maintain specialized equipment on your own.
To help researchers get their studies off the ground, the IBRC offers a limited number of $600 mini-grants available exclusively to projects that utilize the IBRC. These grants are intended to cover participant payments, reducing one of the most common financial hurdles to experimental research.
Researchers using the IBRC receive access to the Duke Behavioral Research Participant Pool, streamlining recruitment and accelerating data collection. The participant pool is managed through SONA software, giving researchers full control over eligibility criteria such as age, gender, and student or community status. A comprehensive prescreen assessment ensures that participants meet study requirements, improving both efficiency and data quality. With recruitment handled through a centralized system, researchers can focus on running strong studies rather than managing outreach.
Student Researchers: Why the IBRC Is for You
Undergraduate and grad students are at the heart of the IBRC’s mission. If you’re working on a class project, honors thesis, senior thesis, independent study, or dissertation, the IBRC gives you access to professional-grade research resources, without needing your own lab or funding. Using the IBRC not only strengthens your research, it also builds practical skills that translate to graduate school, academic careers, and industry research roles.
As a student researcher, the IBRC helps you:
- Turn ideas into real experiments, even if you’ve never run a study before
- Collect high-quality data using industry-standard software and equipment
- Recruit participants quickly through the Duke Behavioral Research Participant Pool
- Reduce out-of-pocket costs with mini-grants for participant payments
- Gain hands-on experience working in a shared experimental research environment
Get Started with the IBRC
Whether you are a faculty member launching a new project, a graduate student collecting dissertation data, or an undergraduate developing an independent research study, the IBRC is ready to support you.
To learn more about using IBRC space, accessing the participant pool, or applying for mini-grant funding, contact the IBRC team to start a conversation about your research needs.