Independent Filmmaker Project

What Independent Filmmaker Project does

The Institute for Progress (IFP) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank founded around April 2013 that produces policy research and recommendations aimed at accelerating U.S. scientific, technological, and industrial progress. Its work is organized around five vertical categories — Metascience, High-Skilled Immigration, Biotechnology, Infrastructure, and Emerging Technology — and targets federal and state policymakers, congressional staff, and government agencies as its primary audience. The organization has no unified software product; instead it ships a portfolio of research outputs including long-form policy reports (e.g., The Transit Abundance Playbook, Building a Better NIH collaboration), branded publication series (Factory Settings, Macroscience, Statecraft), a rolling AI-readiness initiative (The Launch Sequence), and a paid graduate-level course (Economics of Ideas, Science and Innovation). Distribution is fully digital and free to end users: research is published at ifp.org, distributed through Substack and external podcast platforms, and amplified via an X/Twitter account with 22.2K followers.

IFP operates as a private nonprofit and is funded through research grants, fellowships, and institutional partnerships rather than commercial product sales. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, and no revenue or budget figures are available in source data. The leadership team includes co-founder and co-CEO Caleb Watney, Director of Science Policy Heidi Williams (Stanford economics professor and 2015 MacArthur Fellow), Senior Technology Fellow Tim Hwang (former global AI policy lead at Google and former director of the Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative), and Non-Resident Senior Fellow Paul Niehaus (UC San Diego economics professor and co-chair of J-PAL's Science for Progress Initiative). IFP's strategic partnerships include J-PAL, Brookings Institution (Schaeffer Initiative and Hutchins Center), Good Science Project, the Marron Institute, and an engagement with DARPA through formal comments on emerging-technology governance.

The organization's competitive positioning rests on a talent moat — concentrated expertise at the intersection of economics, science policy, and emerging-technology governance — and on institutional partnerships that lend credibility and reach into federal policymaking. Its growth vector is vertical and product expansion rather than geographic: IFP's geographic footprint is the United States and its newest initiatives (The Launch Sequence, Deliverome, Factory Settings) extend its remit from policy commentary toward project incubation and operational lessons from industrial-policy execution.

Name

Independent Filmmaker Project

Legal name

Institute for Progress

Website

https://ifp.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Institute for Progress (IFP) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank founded in 2013 that produces policy research and recommendations on U.S. science, technology, and industrial policy across metascience, immigration, biotechnology, infrastructure, and emerging technology, serving federal policymakers and academic researchers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Policy Research

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720)

akta.pro primary industry

Think Tanks, Policy Research & Public Policy Institutes (BPAGAFAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Education Policy Research Institutes & Think Tanks (EDADADAA)

Keywords

• Policy research
• Policy analysis
• Research publications
• Education programs
• Policy advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Research and Policy Services: IFP generates revenue through research grants, fellowships, and partnerships with foundations and institutions aligned with their mission to accelerate scientific and technological progress. The organization operates as a non-profit think tank.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

IFP is a think tank that produces policy research, publications, educational programs, and content series (newsletters, podcasts, interview series) focused on accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress in the United States through pragmatic policy reforms spanning metascience, high-skilled immigration, biotechnology, infrastructure, and emerging technology.

Product overview

The Institute for Progress (IFP) is a think tank that does not offer a unified software product but rather publishes research reports, operates educational programs, and produces content series focused on accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress. Its offerings include the Economics of Ideas course (a 13-session Zoom-based educational program), research publications such as The Transit Abundance Playbook and The Deliverome Project, content series including Statecraft (policy interviews) and Macroscience (newsletter), and initiative programs like The Launch Sequence (AI readiness projects) and Factory Settings (government capacity building publication). These offerings are distributed through the organization's website and third-party platforms like Substack and external publication sites.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Factory Settings: A publication by former senior leadership of the CHIPS Program Office about building government capacity and production capacity in US critical industries.
• Statecraft
• Macroscience

Products and services

• Economics of Ideas, Science and Innovation Course A 13-session Zoom lecture course taught by leading academics covering the economics of innovation, including idea-based models of growth, science institutions, innovation incentives, and the geography of innovation. Target audience is PhD students in economics or related fields.
• The Transit Abundance Playbook A policy playbook containing fifteen ideas to reduce transit construction costs and accelerate project delivery in the United States.
• The Launch Sequence A rolling project initiative to find, scope, and build the most important projects to prepare the world for advanced AI, involving research and proposal development.
• Factory Settings A publication by former senior CHIPS Program Office leadership about building government capacity and domestic production capacity for critical industries, sharing lessons about state capacity and industrial policy execution.
• Statecraft A weekly interview series hosted by IFP Senior Editor Santi Ruiz featuring top federal appointees, civil servants, and policy entrepreneurs discussing how they achieved particular policy goals.
• Macroscience A group newsletter aiming to increase the speed and effectiveness of science by drawing from a community of writers including scientists and policy entrepreneurs shaping American science.
• The Deliverome Project A project focused on breaking the delivery bottleneck in precision medicine, examining how to accelerate the translation of biomedical innovations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Research influencing federal science policy discourse
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIFP co-founder Paul Niehaus serves as Co-Chair (with Heidi Williams) of J-PAL's Science for Progress Initiative, a partnership focused on applying academic research to accelerate scientific progress and policy reform.
• Brookings InstitutionmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIFP partnered with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy and Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy on the 'Building a Better NIH' project, assembling scholars to offer insights on NIH reform.
• Good Science ProjectmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIFP partnered with the Good Science Project on the 'Building a Better NIH' initiative, a collaborative effort to improve NIH funding mechanisms and science policy.
• DARPAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIFP submitted comments to DARPA's Request for Information on ethical, legal, and societal implications (ELSI) of emerging technologies, providing policy recommendations on how DARPA can proactively shape emerging technologies.
• Marron InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIFP collaborates with the Marron Institute on the Transit Costs Project, which investigates why domestic subway and light rail projects cost more than similar projects internationally.
• USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health PolicymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on the 'Building a Better NIH' project addressing NIH reform, with David Wessel and Richard Frank serving as co-editors.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• New America: Non-partisan policy institute with programs in technology, education, and economic growth. Comparable in operating model and in focus on evidence-based technology and education policy, though at a larger scale.
• RAND Corporation: Major policy research institution with deep work in science policy, technology, and innovation. Overlaps with IFP in metascience and emerging-technology research, but operates at substantially greater scale and scope.
• Brookings Institution: Large, established DC think tank with which IFP actively co-publishes (e.g., the 'Building a Better NIH' project). Overlaps in science, technology, and economic policy but covers a much broader portfolio of topics.
• NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research): Network of academic researchers producing economic policy research. Heidi Williams co-directs NBER's Health Care program; IFP draws heavily on NBER-style analytical methods to produce its innovation-policy outputs.
• Hudson Institute: DC-based policy research organization with strong focus on emerging technology, industrial policy, and science competitiveness — directly adjacent to IFP's research portfolio.

Direct peers

• Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF): A non-partisan think tank focused on technology and innovation policy. Highly comparable in mission, scale, and focus areas (emerging technology, biotech, industrial policy) to IFP, and directly competes for foundation funding and federal policymaker attention.
• Federation of American Scientists (FAS): Non-partisan policy organization working on science, technology, and national security. Comparable in mission and operating scale, and a natural peer for IFP's emerging-technology and science-policy work.
• Niskanen Center: A right-of-center think tank working on technology, immigration, infrastructure, and regulatory reform. Closely aligned with IFP's pragmatic, market-oriented policy orientation and competes for similar funder and policymaker mindshare.
• Good Science Project: Non-profit advocacy organization focused on reforming science funding and improving research productivity. IFP is an active co-author on the 'Building a Better NIH' project and shares the metascience agenda.
• Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET): University-affiliated research center focused on AI, emerging technology, and national security policy. CSET is a prior employer of IFP's Tim Hwang and operates a similar talent model (academics, former tech policymakers).

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ifpfilm
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/independent-filmmaker-project

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Independent Filmmaker Project