Elevating Faculty and Researchers
In Springfield and beyond, IGPA works with scholars to broaden the public reach and policy impact of their work.
Whether you are already skilled at navigating policymaking spaces or new to this work, IGPA can help lift your work into policy conversations. We catalyze experts from all three universities, reaching across the system to engage students, stakeholders, and community members to make all our work count in the real world. Contact IGPA to learn what we can do for you.

Elevating Faculty and Researchers
In Springfield and beyond, IGPA works with scholars to broaden the public reach and policy impact of their work.
Whether you are already skilled at navigating policymaking spaces or new to this work, IGPA can help lift your work into policy conversations. We catalyze experts from all three universities, reaching across the system to engage students, stakeholders, and community members to make all our work count in the real world. Contact IGPA to learn what we can do for you.

Interdisciplinary Research Teams
Since 2019, IGPA has convened substantive Working Groups open to scholars across the system and centered on policy topics like education and children, fiscal and economic policy, substance use disorders, and equity and justice—not narrow academic disciplines. Alongside the COVID-19 Pandemic Task Force, graduate-level Policy Research Teams, and open forums for feedback on policy papers, IGPA fosters incredible interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, and inter-university collaboration, research, engagement, and innovation among scholars with complementary but multi-disciplinary interests. Contact IGPA to get involved.

Policy Skills Development
IGPA’s ongoing Policy Incubator series offers workshops to scholars to refine their skills and hone in on policy-relevant research questions and projects. Though our expert staff can help to connect scholars with decision-makers, this series prepares scholars to launch their own outreach efforts, such as consulting with policymakers, testifying before legislative committees, and refining policy-relevant work for new audiences. With concrete support and practical advice for any sort of policy conversation, IGPA ensures scholars are prepared to pitch their expertise to anyone in Springfield, Washington, or beyond. Contact IGPA to learn more.

Research Dissemination
IGPA partners with more than 150 scholars across departments and disciplines at all three universities. These partners want to see their work have a meaningful, substantive, and fact-driven impact on the state, the Midwest, and the nation. We are uniquely positioned to connect researchers to the executive and legislative branches, civic organizations, the news media, and, in turn, the interested public. Through press connections, targeted publications, and more, we can share your pivotal findings, sparking outside interest in scholarly work, and generating real-world results. Collaborating scholars also get their own IGPA microsite, promotion and tenure letters of support, and more. Contact IGPA to start publishing.
IGPA scholars have been cited in







David Merriman - James J. Stukel Presidential Professor of Public Administration, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago
Elizabeth Powers - Associate Professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Ruby Mendenhall, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Meghan A. Kessler, UIS Assistant Professor of Teacher Education, Co-Lead of the Education, Learning, and Child and Family Well-Being Working Group and author of “Policy Spotlight: An Unfolding Crisis in the Satisfaction and Supply of Teachers in Illinois”
Ken Kriz, Distinguished Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Sage Kim, Associate Professor, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago