THE CONSORTIUM ON QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS (CQRM) promotes the teaching and use of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. Our activities include an annual training institute (IQMR), where leading scholars have (to date) taught advanced qualitative methods to one thousand two hundred and forty eight graduate students and faculty.

Beginning with academic year 2008-2009, the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research moved to the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, and shifted from January to a summer time slot. The Institute is partly funded by the National Science Foundation. CQRM's activities have received generous support from the Hunt Alternatives Fund.

The Institute is held at the same time as a related Research Group on Qualitative and Multi-Method Analysis. While the Institute focuses on teaching research skills, the Research Group is an authors' workshop which encourages the development of qualitative and multi-method research techniques.

CQRM's members in academic year 2011-2012 included departments, centers and/or institutes at: Aarhus University, American University, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Bergen University, Boston University, University of British Columbia,  Brown University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Irvine, UCLA, University of California Riverside, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Cruz, University of California San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Colorado, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Delaware, PRI Frankfurt, University of Florida, George Washington University, Georgetown University, University of Guadalajara, Harvard University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University,  Johns Hopkins SAIS, Universite Laval, University of London, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Miami, McGill University, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, New School for Social Research, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Oregon, Oxford University, University of Pittsburgh, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Princeton University, Queen's University, Rutgers University, University of Southern California, University of South Carolina, University of Southern Denmark, Syracuse University, Temple University, University of Texas, University of Toronto, Tufts University, University of Vienna, University of Washington, Washington State University, and University of Western Ontario.  In addition to students sponsored by members, the 2012 institute also drew individual attendees from Australian National University, Autonomous University of Mexico State, Brown University, Central European University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Princeton University, Pusan National University, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Stanford University, Tbilisi State University, Tufts University, UCLA, University of Cologne, University of Exeter, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, University of Kentucky, University of Texas, Austin, University of Vienna, Virginia Tech, Washington University in Saint Louis, and Yale University..

While the consortium's mission is to promote qualitative methods, we proceed from the position that to produce policy-relevant knowledge, the social sciences should employ the full range of available complementary qualitative, statistical and formal methods. Our concern is that very few leading research universities offer graduate-level qualitative methods courses and even fewer require them. As a consequence, the social sciences are failing to take advantage of recent advances in qualitative methods, and in the long run risk losing an important component of their methodological heterogeneity.