The CISA research group started life in an area of interest, social work, where professionalisation objectives have taken a very central position and where academic research has consequently been more fragile and less abundant.which is why we aim to redress this situation, but without renouncing this very tight link with reality and the profession.This explains the formation of a group combining academic profiles and others of recognised professional prestige.

The research goals of the CISA group are based on the area of social work and social policies, but we understand that they go beyond these and expand their boundaries, meaning we contemplate a work that recognises the specifics of the discipline, but also that has a cross-disciplinary character in the area of the social sciences.Thus, while our research focuses on social work it also allows us to incorporate projects linked to a diverse range of sectoral areas and groups (health, education, gender, sexuality, housing, and so on.)to enable us to reflect on the different forms of management and organization of social interventions, on the democratic and innovative dimension of public policies and user and citizen participation in designing and implementing social policies, and on the implementation of social policies.

The CISA research group therefore has a dual objective:

• First, to produce quality academic research in the area of the social sciences that uses a multidisciplinary approach and helps to create a research team from which to acquire knowledge, and publish and disseminate research results, thus integrating into the academic community.
• And second, to produce research that is capable of having an impact on reality; in other words, transferable and socially relevant research for our society.We are aware of and sensitive to the huge difficulties and uncertainties facing current societies, so much so that we do not contemplate research that is not committed to this reality and that is not clearly designed to help understand and improve it.