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  • RIPL Home
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  • What We Do
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  • Careers

R

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RESEARCH IMPROVING PEOPLE'S LIVES

RIPL began as the Rhode Island Innovative Policy Lab in 2015, after Professor Justine Hastings received foundation funding to explore the possibility of scaling the type of high-impact, rigorous research she is known for into a permanent model for using data and science to make policy more efficient and effective.

Under the leadership of Governor Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island government is focused on “making government more responsive to the people it serves” by focusing on “problem solving, implementing innovative solutions, and improving agency performance and outcomes.” Add in RIPL’s expertise in using data and science to improve policy and people's lives, and a great collaboration began.

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.

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During our initial launch period in the state of Rhode Island, we completed dozens of high-impact and rigorous research projects, supported by over one hundred policy memos, evaluations and briefs, and held hundreds of meetings with government and community stakeholders as we worked together to use data, science, and experience to understand where policy is working and how it can further improve. Our commitment to partnership, professionalism, collaboration, and objective results established our model as a successful prototype.

RIPL supports the entire process of fact based policy: from problem solving ideation, to establishing data-driven facts, to developing and testing policy improvements. We perfected this process through our innovative work with our Rhode Island partners, and are now expanding to bring efficient and effective ways to improve lives across the country.

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.

Our Mission hasn't changed.

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