A think tank for accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress
The US is the R&D lab for the world and we should act like it
American science and technology are the best in the world, but they rest on a fragile foundation. Slow productivity growth, sclerotic institutions, and growing international competition have revealed fault lines in our innovation ecosystem. The Institute for Progress (IFP) focuses on pragmatic policy reforms that drive breakthrough discoveries, attract top talent, and expand our nation’s capacity to build.
Metascience
How can we change the incentives within science to produce more breakthrough research?
High-Skilled Immigration
How can we attract and retain superstar talent from around the globe?
Biotechnology
How can we prevent future pandemics and accelerate progress in the life sciences?
Infrastructure
How can we make it easier to build things in the world of atoms?
Emerging Technology
How can we shape the frontier of technological development and deployment?
Spotlight research
Emerging Technology
Request for Proposals: The Launch Sequence
Apply to our rolling effort to find, scope, and build the most important projects to prepare the world for advanced AI
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High-Skilled Immigration
The Cost of the OPT FICA Exemption
How closing a tax exemption can raise tens of billions of dollars
Read the full report
Biotechnology
Protect Human Subjects, Not Bureaucracy
How investigator choice in IRBs can improve ethical oversight
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Metascience
How to Accelerate the American Scientific Enterprise
Five recommendations for the Office of Science and Technology Policy's plan to accelerate science
Read the full report
Featured projects
Factory Settings
by Mike Schmidt, Todd Fisher, and Sara Meyers
Factory Settings is a publication by the former senior leadership of the CHIPS Program Office. Factory Settings is about building in two senses of the word: Building capacity within government, and building production capacity in the US for critical industries. Drawing on their firsthand experience implementing the CHIPS Act, the team shares lessons learned about strengthening state capacity and executing industrial policy.
Statecraft
by Santi Ruiz
Statecraft is an interview series about how policymakers actually get things done. Once a week, IFP Senior Editor Santi Ruiz interviews top federal appointees, civil servants, and policy entrepreneurs about how they achieved a particular policy goal.
Macroscience
by Andrew Gerard
Macroscience is a group newsletter which aims to increase the speed and effectiveness of science by drawing from a community of writers, including the scientists and policy entrepreneurs shaping the future of American science.
Read more recent publications
Infrastructure
How Section 901 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Reduces Housing Supply
An amendment can preserve ROAD's housing goals
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High-Skilled Immigration
A Prescription for Fixing the Prevailing Wage System
Replacing Blind Benchmarking with Experience Benchmarking
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Emerging Technology
When Do More AI Chips for China Mean Fewer for the United States?
Assessing whether NVIDIA H200 production for China would divert chips for US customers based on AI chip supply constraints
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Emerging Technology
Fast and Secure Grid Interconnection for American AI Leadership
IFP’s comments on FERC’s proposed rules for “large loads” like AI data centers
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Emerging Technology
America’s AI Exports Program
Strategic goals and implementation recommendations for US policymakers
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Infrastructure
Breaking the NEPA Litigation Doom Loop
By reforming remedies in NEPA cases
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Metascience
Beyond AlphaFold
How to target investments to develop new AI models that can uncover natural laws
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Infrastructure
How to Create Real Permitting Certainty
How the FREEDOM Act can unlock permitting reform
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Biotechnology
Proxy Praxis: Why Validating an Endpoint Took 12 Years
Fragmented data and misaligned incentives are blocking faster clinical trials
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Biotechnology
Proxy Praxis: How Surrogate Endpoints Can Speed Drug Development
A new series from the Institute for Progress
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Emerging Technology
Should the US Sell Hopper Chips to China?
Assessing the impacts of exporting the H200 or H100 AI chips
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Metascience
Lab-Directed R&D at the National Labs
Decentralized funding can empower institutions to pursue innovative science
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