Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About RAND

We help leaders tackle the toughest policy challenges by arming them with RAND research and analysis. RAND's work is high-quality, objective, and innovative. We're nonprofit and nonpartisan.

RAND serves as a trusted advisor that helps leaders tackle tough problems across nearly all policy domains. We provide decisionmakers with clear, unbiased, and actionable insights. We arm leaders with the information they need to make important decisions. We do not advocate for specific policies or political outcomes. This ensures that leaders can trust our work.

RAND research topics and questions are largely driven by client and grantmaker requests; we work to understand what our sponsors are eager to learn about and proceed accordingly, moving quickly to get clients what they need to make informed decisions.

Clients and grantmakers from public and philanthropic sectors in the United States and elsewhere turn to RAND for high-quality research that helps them tackle tough policy challenges. Funding comes from federal, state, and local governments, philanthropic contributions, and foundation partnerships. We also operate four federally funded research and development centers.

Our FFRDCs analyze national security and homeland security matters. Other RAND research divisions work in social and economic policy, with projects addressing issues related to health, education, employment, and infrastructure.

We also use funds from philanthropic support and our modest endowment for research projects that are either too new or too urgent to attract traditional client support.

However projects are funded, RAND is committed to quality and objectivity. Our research is guided solely by evidence and data.

See a list of our funders

Federally funded research and development centers are independent entities that conduct research for the U.S. government and advise government leaders. These centers are continually assessed and competed to ensure they remain effective.

RAND's FFRDCs focus exclusively on producing studies and analysis that help federal clients in a variety of ways. For example, our insights can help streamline the acquisition process for greater efficiency, identify ways to maintain operational readiness, highlight how to save the government money, assess future risks, and shape cost-effective security solutions.

Learn more about RAND's FFRDCs

The RAND name originated as a contraction of research and development. We were founded as the RAND Corporation in 1948. However, in the 75+ years since, the term corporation has become increasingly synonymous with private enterprise and for-profit companies, not nonprofits like us. That's why we decided to refer to ourselves as simply RAND—to clearly reflect our nonprofit status.

RAND began in 1946 as a research project (Project RAND) backed by the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1948, RAND became an independent, nonprofit research organization committed to helping leaders address the most complex and consequential problems facing society. That startup led to a long journey of invention, innovation, and improving public policy.

Learn more about RAND history

RAND's legacy is rich and vast, but we're probably known most for our foundational contributions to computing, artificial intelligence, and the internet, as well as for helping U.S. leaders navigate the Cold War and develop theories of deterrence to prevent nuclear war.

Other landmark studies include the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, which showed how patient cost sharing affects total health care costs, quality of care, and population health; and Invisible Wounds of War, the first large-scale, nongovernmental assessment of the psychological and cognitive needs of military personnel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more about RAND's most influential research

Yes, the U.S. government entrusts us to conduct classified research, and we make our findings available to decisionmakers. However, most RAND research is not classified and is available for free on rand.org.

Thank you for your interest. There are several ways you can connect with us: