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Over a century ago, the Hatch Act of 1887 created a remarkably effective and durable R&D infrastructure aimed at agricultural innovation, establishing university-based Agricultural Experiment Stations (AES) in each state tasked with developing, testing, and translating innovations designed to increase agricultural productivity. Locating university-based AES in every state ensured the production of locally-relevant evidence by researchers working in partnership with local stakeholders. But providing for federal oversight of the state AES by an Office of Experiment Stations, established in the US Department of Agriculture in 1888, ensured that these local efforts remained directed at scientifically rigorous innovation. Further, providing stable annual federal appropriations for the AES, with required matching state appropriations, ensured the durability and financial sustainability of the R&D infrastructure.

The Social Science Research Council is supporting the members of the College and University Fund for the Social Sciences in developing a legislative proposal that adapts the core elements of this proven-effective R&D infrastructure to accelerate policy innovation in state and local governments. Mimicking the structure of 7 USC 14, in our proposal federal and matching state appropriations would support university-based “Policy Experiment Stations” or policy innovation labs in each state tasked with partnering with state and local governments on scientifically rigorous evaluations of the efficacy of their policies and programs. As in 7 USC 14, state policy innovation labs would be overseen by a federal office charged with ensuring that their work was conducted with the highest levels of scientific rigor. For example, this coordinating function could be given to the Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) in the General Services Administration, a highly respected locus of evaluation expertise. Also as in 7 USC 14, states would be empowered to locate policy innovation labs at either public or private universities (or both), taking into consideration both the geographic distribution of evaluation expertise in their states and the evidence that proximity matters for innovation.

Establishing a national network of university-based “Policy Experiment Stations” or policy innovation labs in each state, supported by continuing federal and state appropriations, is an evidence-based plan to facilitate abundance-oriented policy innovation in state and local governments. We already have impressive examples of what these policy innovation labs might be able to accomplish. At MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab North America, the University of Chicago’s Urban Labs, the University of California’s California Policy Lab, and Harvard University’s The People Lab, to name just a few examples from universities in the College and University Fund, leading researchers partner with state and local governments on scientifically rigorous evaluations of the efficacy of public policies and programs, leading in several cases to evidence-based policy reform. Yet effective as these initiatives are, they are largely supported by philanthropic funds, an infeasible strategy for national scaling.

There is widespread consensus that we badly need state and local government innovation to ensure a future of abundance, but a shortage of evidence-based strategies to get us there. Emerging research findings about the determinants of government innovation, and about the efficacy of the R&D infrastructure for agricultural innovation established over a century ago, provide a blueprint for an evidence-based plan to accelerate state and local government innovation.

Supporting Policy Innovation Labs

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