Haskins Laboratories

What Haskins Laboratories does

Haskins Laboratories is a not-for-profit research institution founded in 1935 that conducts basic and applied research on spoken and written language. After more than 75 years as an independent entity, Haskins transitioned in April 2024 to a collaborative model between Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center (led by Linda Mayes) and the University of Connecticut, unified under a formal Memorandum of Understanding. The institution maintains research infrastructure across three locations in Connecticut — New Haven (Yale, headquarters at 300 George Street, Suite 900), Storrs (UConn), and an emerging site at UConn Waterbury led by Fumiko Hoeft — and is co-led by seven principal investigators including Kenneth Pugh, Nicole Landi, Fumiko Hoeft, Vince Gracco, Jay Rueckl, Douglas Whalen, and CEO Emeritus Philip Rubin.

Research focuses on speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, human communication, and neuromodulation. The organization's principal technical artifact is the *ASY* (Articulatory Synthesis) Demo, a legacy articulatory synthesis tool added to the website in January 2024. Haskins also operates the Haskins Global Literacy Hub, an international network of more than 20 research teams spanning five countries (Argentina, Jamaica, Taiwan, India, Israel), and is affiliated with the Endangered Language Fund, a separate 501(c)(3) founded by co-leader Doug Whalen in 1996 that has funded language preservation work in over 60 countries.

Haskins has no commercial revenue model; operations are funded through research grants and institutional partnerships with Yale and UConn. Its go-to-market approach is community-led via seminar series, academic publications, and collaborative research rather than product sales. The served segments are academic researchers, educational institutions, and language preservation organizations. Haskins has experienced notable personnel transitions in 2025-2026, including the passing of board member and linguist Stephen R. Anderson (October 2025), researcher Christine Shadle (January 2026), and researcher Alice Faber (May 2026), while board member Ovid Tzeng received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the 14th Conference for Chinese Psychologists in March 2026.

Name

Haskins Laboratories

Legal name

Haskins Laboratories

Website

https://haskinslabs.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1935

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Haskins Laboratories is a non-profit research institution founded in 1935, conducting applied research on speech, language, reading, and human communication. Operating under a Yale-UConn collaborative model, it coordinates the Haskins Global Literacy Hub spanning five countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New Haven

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Grants and Institutional Funding: As a not-for-profit research institution that transitioned to a collaborative model between Yale University School of Medicine and University of Connecticut, Haskins Laboratories operates primarily through research grants and institutional partnerships. The organization is led by academics and researchers focused on advancing the science of spoken and written language rather than commercial revenue generation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Haskins Laboratories is a not-for-profit research institution that conducts basic and applied research on spoken and written language, including speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication. The organization operates as a collaborative research community between Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut, supporting the Haskins Global Literacy Hub—a multi-institutional network of over 20 research teams advancing literacy outcomes globally. Its tangible web offering is the legacy ASY (Articulatory Synthesis) Demo, a speech synthesis visualization tool.

Product overview

Haskins Laboratories is a research institution, not a product company. It operates as a multidisciplinary research community focused on spoken and written language science. The primary offering is the *ASY* (Articulatory Synthesis) Demo, a legacy articulatory synthesis tool available on their website. Beyond this demo, Haskins conducts basic and applied research on speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication. The institution also supports the Haskins Global Literacy Hub initiative, which is an international collaborative research effort rather than a commercial product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ASY (Articulatory Synthesis): Legacy articulatory synthesis demo tool added to the website on January 24, 2024.

Products and services

• ASY (Articulatory Synthesis) Demo A legacy articulatory synthesis demo tool that enables visualization and analysis of speech production. Added to the Haskins website on January 24, 2024, it serves researchers and academics studying articulatory synthesis.
• Basic and Applied Research Services on Spoken and Written Language Research services conducted by an international, multidisciplinary community of researchers covering speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication. Targeted at academic researchers and institutions.
• Haskins Global Literacy Hub Collaborative Research Program An international and interdisciplinary collaborative group that brings together over 20 teams of expert researchers, practitioners, educators, and education technology specialists from all continents. Co-led by researchers from Yale and UConn, with global partnerships in Argentina, Jamaica, Taiwan, India, and Israel.
• Haskins Seminar Series Regular seminar series held in-person at UConn Waterbury and virtually via MS Teams, featuring researchers presenting on topics related to language, literacy, and brain science.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Yale University School of Medicine (Child Study Center)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2024Key center of the Haskins Global Literacy Hub at Yale, led by Linda Mayes. After more than 75 years as independent not-for-profit, Haskins transitioned to collaborative model with Yale. The Yale Child Study Center serves as one of two main institutional anchors under the MOU signed in April 2024.
• University of ConnecticutcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2024Multi-institutional network operating under formal MOU signed April 2024. Haskins-affiliated researchers continue to focus on speech, language, reading, and neuromodulation. UConn Waterbury led by Fumiko Hoeft, UConn Storrs/Global led by Daniel Weiner. Technical infrastructure maintained at Storrs with emerging research site in Waterbury.
• Haskins Global Literacy HubcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational and interdisciplinary collaborative group bringing together over 20 teams of expert researchers, practitioners, educators, and education technology specialists from all continents. Co-led by Kenneth Pugh, Fumiko Hoeft, Benjamin Powers, Maureen Lovett, John Russell, Jay Rueckl, Vincent Gracco, Mary Young, and Sumita Saluja. Advancing global partnerships in Argentina, Jamaica, Taiwan, India, and Israel.
• Endangered Language FundminorStrategic or Co-development Partner501(c)(3) founded by Doug Whalen in 1996 with goal of supporting endangered language revitalization and documentation projects. Grants have promoted work in over 60 countries and funded wide range of projects.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics: The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, Netherlands is a leading international research institute focused on the science of language, including speech production, comprehension, and reading. It is the most direct global peer to Haskins Labs, sharing the core focus on psycholinguistics and multidisciplinary language science.
• MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit: The MRC CBU at the University of Cambridge conducts research on cognitive neuroscience including speech, language, and reading. It is a comparable university-affiliated research unit with strong institutional anchoring similar to Haskins' Yale-UConn model.
• Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour: The Donders Institute at Radboud University conducts multidisciplinary research on brain, cognition, and behaviour with substantial focus on language and reading. Its organizational model of combining cognitive neuroscience with translation to society mirrors Haskins Labs' research-community structure.
• Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology: The Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois conducts multidisciplinary research including cognitive neuroscience, language, and human-computer interaction. It shares Haskins Labs' model of a university-anchored, interdisciplinary research community with both basic and applied research aims.
• Rotman Research Institute: Located at Baycrest in Toronto, the Rotman Research Institute conducts cognitive neuroscience research on brain function including language and memory. It is comparable to Haskins as a research-focused non-profit/academic-affiliated institute studying brain-behaviour relationships.

Broad incumbents

• SRI International: SRI International is a much larger, established non-profit research institute that conducts contract research across many fields including education and human language technology. It is a broad incumbent operating at a larger scale than Haskins with overlapping capabilities in scientific R&D services.
• Allen Institute for Brain Science: The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a large, well-funded non-profit research institute producing open neuroscience data and tools. While focused on brain mapping rather than applied language, it is a comparable non-profit research model operating at much greater scale than Haskins Labs.

Others

• Educational Testing Service (ETS): ETS is a non-profit educational research and assessment organization focused on literacy, language learning, and educational measurement. While primarily an assessment company, its Global English Learning and literacy research activities place it in a thematically adjacent space to Haskins Labs.
• International Literacy Association: The International Literacy Association is a global non-profit organization focused on literacy research, advocacy, and educator professional development. It overlaps thematically with Haskins' Global Literacy Hub mission of advancing evidence-based literacy practice worldwide.
• Center for Applied Linguistics: The Center for Applied Linguistics is a non-profit organization in Washington, DC dedicated to language research, education, and policy. It is a peer in the language research ecosystem with comparable focus on applied linguistics and language education.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=MSWV9uraoU4
• Xx.com/haskinslabs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Haskins Laboratories