Since the inception of the Department, our faculty members have been involved in major national welfare policy debates such as issues of the pension system and the national health insurance. They have also conducted research on various welfare policy areas such as disability, aging, long-term care, family, social administration, labor and employment. These endeavors have helped the Department establish a reputation of basing policy arguments on solid scientific grounds. To highlight, the Department proposed to the National Science Council in 2001 for undertaking a cross-university interdisciplinary research project on globalization and welfare reform in Taiwan. In addition, more than one fourth of the faculty members were involved in a policy review and reform project on the National Health Insurance program of Taiwan.

In the past decades, the Department had been awarded major research grants from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and various executive offices of the central government, such as Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Interior, National Development Council, National Health Insurance Administration, and local government research grants as well. In the year of 2008, the Department was awarded research grants by the MOST for nine research projects, more than any other departments of social work/social welfare in Taiwan. . In addition to MOST, over the years, the Department has established collaboration with various private foundations, local charity organizations and communities as well.