The Ford Foundation's investment in social sciences has the following originality. The Ford Foundation allocated 1950 dollars for economic problems, half of which was used for the "Future Resources Group" established by 1952. The group is an autonomous organization under the Foundation, headquartered in Washington, DC, and chaired by gustafson, former president of the University of Nebraska. The focus of this project is not science and technology (although it also involves science and technology projects related to social issues), but the rational utilization of water, energy and mineral resources and related social issues, including the peaceful use of atomic energy. The research content and concept of future resources are actually equivalent to the "sustainable development" put forward in the late 1980s, which was quite advanced in the 1950s.

The remaining half of the funds are used for economic projects, which are used to fund economic-related research projects in the United States and some Asian countries, such as "the role of labor force in economic development" and so on.