INR Policy Research Program:

The Policy Research Program offers independent analyses of environmental and natural resource issues to describe plausible policy options and their likely strengths and weaknesses. Studies conducted by the Policy Program will respond to requests from citizens, businesses, and agencies at local, state, tribal, and federal levels. Citizen participation will be included in all Institute projects on public policies. Policy analyses will be grounded in rigorous criteria for defining the context for specific policy choices and will take advantage of expertise from throughout Oregon. As much as possible, analyses will be based on field data pertinent to the policies being considered.

The Policy Research Program is patterned to some degree after the highly respected National Research Council which is the working arm of the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C. Studies by the Policy Program will typically be conducted on a project-by-project basis on topics selected by users. Studies will include planned interactions with users, consistently refining issues and justifying analyses in an open public setting. This process will be similar to that used in the 2000 State of the Environment Report led by former OSU President Paul Risser.