IGPA improves public policy discussion through nonpartisan, evidence-based research and public engagement in Illinois.
IGPA connects the world-class research and expertise of the University of Illinois System to policy conversations in Illinois and beyond.
IGPA serves as a catalyst and connector across the university system by partnering with colleges, departments, institutes, and centers on projects, events, and publications.
In 2020 alone, IGPA published dozens of research reports, policy briefs, and other materials to undergird conversations on public health, fiscal recovery, community resilience, and more.
The University of Illinois System is the state’s trusted source for world-class research and expertise. IGPA ensures that the work system scholars do matters in the real world, from the statehouse to media and beyond.
IGPA has a long history of working with policymakers to pinpoint issues in need of attention, answer complex questions in need of greater research, and develop objective, data-driven policy that serves the people of Illinois. IGPA’s faculty working groups ensure that policy questions get in-depth, interdisciplinary consideration.
The people of Illinois have made an incredible investment in the University of Illinois System, and IGPA helps return that value by supporting necessary, well-informed policymaking that improves their lives.
Our working groups are open to scholars across the University of Illinois System. They build interdepartmental, interdisciplinary relationships that enhance your work and strengthen its potential impact.
The University of Illinois System is a trusted source for top-quality research and expertise drawn from all three universities. IGPA matches this expertise directly to the policy needs of our state.
IGPA scholars have been cited in the past year in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, Route Fifty, NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and the Christian Science Monitor, among many others.
Whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, IGPA’s events are a core component of our commitment to public engagement that sparks smart policy.
IGPA works in collaboration with partners to provide regular leadership training, learning opportunities, and other programming.
![I came out of [working with IGPA] feeling so proud and so supported... I learned about how to communicate with policymakers, I learned how to communicate my ideas in a new way, and I felt that I learned a lot from the process. It was just awesome on every front for me.<br />
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-UIS Assistant Professor of Teacher Education Meghan A. Kessler, who authored an IGPA Policy Spotlight](https://igpa.uillinois.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/UIS_MKessler_2018.png)
Curt Clemons-Mosby, the director of Budgeting for Results in the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, is a member of IGPA’s Fiscal and Economic Policy Working Group. The University of Illinois System and Institute of Government and Public Affairs have an intergovernmental agreement with the Budgeting for Results Commission to share University of Illinois research tools.
IGPA partners with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to support the agency’s work across several of its commissions, task forces and boards, including the Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security, the Interagency Task Force on Homelessness, the Interagency Council on Early Intervention, the Health and Human Services Task Force and the Immigrant Impact Task Force.
IGPA partners with the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) to convene the New Members Conference. U of I System scholars and COGFA staff brief newly elected or appointed members of the Illinois General Assembly on key policy topics at the biannual event.