​Prior to establishing the Source of Hope Foundation, philanthropist Stephen Robert served as chairman at Watson Institute of International Studies. There, Stephen Robert was a part of a multi-pronged initiative to promote a just and peaceful world through an educational, research, and public platform.

The Watson Institute is comprised of a community of scholars, practitioners, and students who research and develop solutions to address global issues that affect everyone, including rapid urbanization, globalized labor standards, and cyber threats. Much of this work is accomplished through the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS) at Brown.

The center focuses on facilitating and conducting research through an inter-disciplinarian approach, which relies heavily on the CHRHS team, affiliated faculty, and international fellows. CHRHS teams independently research issues that are directly related to global issues, such as civilian-military interaction and coordination in response to world crises.

The Seed Grant program also funds research studies that focus on understanding and improving disaster preparedness, humanitarian response, and post-emergency reconstruction. Some of their most recent research efforts include researching humanitarian work in earthquake zones in the Philippines and researching the humanitarian coordination issues in flood-prone areas in Pakistan.

Finally, the center, in collaboration with Brown Humanitarian and Human Rights Research, also conducts research on the university’s campus. This collaboration has generated research related to monitoring threats to democracy in Brazil as well as international intervention and rule of law after a war with a focus on Liberia.