We got to work right away collaborating with agencies, developing our process, understanding their needs, and building an outstanding team of computer scientists, economists, behavioral scientists, and policy analysts. Bringing these important elements and diverse points of view together, we developed a new way to use research and facts to impact policy and improve lives.
Our approach is three-fold. First, we take large-scale, difficult-to-use data from across county, state and federal agencies, and transform it into a relational database which puts facts that policymakers need at their fingertips. Second, we use our scientific expertise, technical know-how, and creativity to turn these data and facts into insights. We measure cause and effect of policies, so that we know what works and why — and so others can learn from it too. Third, we turn research into results using an interdisciplinary approach of market research, behavioral science, economics, and data science to figure out what will improve lives, and then turn it into reality.
As a result of our success in Rhode Island, other states and agencies started reaching out, and we realized RIPL’s full potential as a new way to guide policy with facts in partnership with strong researchers for states across the country facing many of the same challenges as Rhode Island.
To scale successfully, RIPL was born as the next generation of the Rhode Island Innovative Policy Lab. We are now a 501(c)3 with faculty affiliates across the country, expanding our support to improve lives with states while at the same time continuing to deliver solutions with our valued partners here in Rhode Island.
