The SSGAC is a cooperative enterprise among medical researchers and social scientists that coordinates genetic association studies for social science outcomes and provides a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas. The SSGAC also tries to promote the collection of harmonized and well-measured phenotypes.

The SSGAC was founded in February 2011 in conjunction with the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium meeting.  One major impetus for the formation of the SSGAC was growing recognition that existing approaches to gene discovery in social science have often not produced replicable findings.