Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project

What Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project does

Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project is a research lab founded in 2003 and housed within William & Mary's Global Research Institute in Williamsburg, Virginia. It conducts systematic surveys of three respondent populations — IR faculty, government policymakers, and think tank staff — and compiles coding databases of political science and policy journals. Its core products are the periodic Faculty Surveys (eight rounds fielded across 40+ countries since 2004), the Policymaker Surveys (three rounds: 2011, 2017, 2022), and the recurring Snap Polls (24 issued to date, including XXIV on the Iran War in March 2026), alongside a Journal Article Database covering the top 12 political science journals from 1980 to 2018 and a Policy Article Coding database covering Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2015. All data is exposed via interactive dashboards on the TRIP website and distributed as downloadable zip files and PDF reports, with no API offered.

TRIP's revenue mechanics are non-commercial: the project is funded primarily through grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with operating overhead absorbed by William & Mary. All data, dashboards, reports, and publications are provided free of charge; there are no pricing tiers, subscription products, or licensing arrangements. Distribution relies on academic publication (International Studies Quarterly, Perspectives on Politics), a media partnership with Foreign Policy magazine that publishes Snap Poll findings, and organic social channels (Twitter/X, Facebook, LinkedIn) plus a student-research-assistant blog. The project operates with a small team of three faculty directors (Sue Peterson, Mike Tierney, Ryan Powers), a senior project manager (Irene Entringer), and 5–15 rotating student research assistants — totaling approximately 19 contributors. Its customer base spans a network of 10,540+ IR scholars worldwide, U.S. government policymakers, think tank staff, and journalists; 106 scholarly articles have been published using TRIP data, and the project has produced one trade book (Georgetown University Press, 2020) on the theory-practice divide in IR.

Name

Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project

Legal name

Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project

Website

https://trip.wm.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

TRIP is a 2003-founded research lab at William & Mary's Global Research Institute that conducts longitudinal surveys of international relations scholars, government policymakers, and think tank staff, exposing all data through free interactive dashboards and academic publications under Carnegie Corporation grant funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Williamsburg

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Funding: TRIP is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and operates as part of William & Mary's Global Research Institute. The project conducts surveys and publishes research with grant funding rather than commercial revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

TRIP is an academic research lab that conducts and disseminates systematic surveys of international relations scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, and provides interactive data dashboards, downloadable research databases, and peer-reviewed publications on the IR discipline and foreign policy. Core offerings include Snap Polls (real-time expert surveys on unfolding events), periodic Faculty Surveys across 36+ countries, Policymaker Surveys of senior U.S. government officials, and two systematic article databases (Journal Article Database and Policy Article Coding). All outputs are freely available online.

Product overview

The Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project is a research lab at William & Mary's Global Research Institute offering a suite of survey-based research products. The core offerings include Snap Polls (real-time expert surveys on unfolding events), Faculty Surveys (periodic global surveys of IR scholars on teaching and research trends), Policymaker Surveys (surveys of senior government officials), and two article databases (Journal Article Database covering top political science journals since 1980, and Policy Article Coding covering Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs 2000-2015). All survey data is accessible through interactive Data Dashboards. TRIP also publishes the book 'Bridging the Theory-Practice Divide in International Relations' through Georgetown University Press.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Snap Polls Regular surveys fielded as international events unfold to provide real-time data on the views of international relations (IR) experts. Each Snap Poll surveys IR scholars at U.S. universities in political science departments or policy schools who teach or conduct research on issues crossing international borders. Results are published in Foreign Policy magazine and shared via social media.
• Faculty Surveys Periodic surveys of IR scholars in the United States and around the world examining teaching and research trends and foreign policy views in the IR discipline. Conducted in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2022 with progressively international scope.
• Policymaker Surveys Surveys of senior U.S. government officials involved in national security, trade, and development decision-making. Three surveys have been fielded to date (2011, 2017, and 2022), providing systematic data on government officials' views on these policy areas.
• Journal Article Database A compiled and systematically organized database of articles published in the top 12 political science journals from 1980 to 2018. Available as a downloadable dataset (TRIP_JAD.zip) for academic researchers studying IR publication trends.
• Policy Article Coding A database compiling and systematically organizing articles published in Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2015, enabling systematic analysis of policy discourse in major foreign policy publications.
• Interactive Data Dashboards Interactive web-based dashboards allowing visualization and exploration of Faculty Survey data, Snap Poll data, Policymaker Survey data, Journal Article Coding data, and Policy Article Coding data. Users can search survey questions by keyword and break down responses by country, gender, party identification, rank, and other variables.
• Bridging the Theory-Practice Divide Book A book published by Georgetown University Press in May 2020 by Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson, Ryan Powers, and Michael J. Tierney, in which leading academics and practitioners reflect on the nature and size of the theory-practice divide in international relations, drawing on fifteen years of TRIP survey data.

Quantifiable outcome

• 10,540+ IR scholars in network
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Freie Universität BerlinminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates on the 'Global Pathways: Knowledge Diffusion in International Relations Research' project examining the diffusion of knowledge in IR. Integrates data from TRIP faculty survey, journal content, citation analyses, CV analyses, and semi-structured interviews.
• Political Violence LabminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with TRIP to survey national security policy officials, international trade officials, and international development policy officials in 2022.
• Princeton's Niehaus Center for Globalization and GovernanceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on survey of IR scholars at US and European universities to get predictions about the direction of international relations over the next five years. Results detailed in Foreign Policy article and published paper.
• The Sié Center for International Security & Diplomacy at University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International StudiesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFacilitated a survey examining the ethics of 'bridging the gap' - scholarly engagement with policymakers. Also collaborated on Snap Poll XVI.
• William & Mary's Global Research InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTRIP is housed within William & Mary's Global Research Institute, a multidisciplinary hub bringing together academics, practitioners, and students to apply research to real world issues.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Pew Research Center: One of the most recognized large-scale independent survey research organizations, with comparable methodology (rigorous sampling, dashboards, free public access) and similar brand authority in evidence-based social science. Pew is a broader incumbent covering politics, religion, science, and demographics rather than specializing in IR like TRIP.
• NORC at the University of Chicago: University-affiliated, independent research organization known for large-scale social science surveys and data infrastructure (e.g., General Social Survey). Like TRIP, NORC combines academic credibility with survey-based empirical research, but covers social science broadly rather than specializing in IR.
• Brookings Institution: Premier U.S. policy research organization producing influential reports on foreign policy, governance, and economics. While much broader than TRIP, Brookings shares the academic-policy bridge model and regularly collaborates with IR scholars surveyed by TRIP.
• RAND Corporation: A large, established policy research institution that conducts systematic analysis informing U.S. and international decision-makers. Operates with similar mission of bridging scholarship and policy practice but across security, economics, and society rather than surveying the IR discipline itself.
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Major foreign policy think tank linked to TRIP's primary funder (Carnegie Corporation of New York). Both organizations share the goal of connecting rigorous analysis with foreign policy practice and frequently publish findings consumed by IR scholars and policymakers.
• Gallup: The world's best-known polling organization, with deep methodological expertise in large-sample survey design and global brand reach. Operates in a much broader domains than TRIP but uses comparable survey instruments and dashboard-style public data dissemination.
• Council on Foreign Relations: Long-established foreign policy institution that publishes Foreign Affairs and convenes scholars and policymakers. Like TRIP it studies the gap between scholarship and practice but does so through practitioner convening rather than systematic scholar surveys.
• Cato Institute: Prominent policy research organization with a dedicated foreign policy and defense studies program, regularly publishing think pieces from affiliated scholars. Less rigorous survey methodology than TRIP, but competes in the same IR-policy thought leadership space.

Others

• SSRN (Social Science Research Network): Open-access scholarly repository and preprint server widely used by IR and political science researchers. Not a direct competitor, but a complementary academic infrastructure on which many of the scholars in TRIP's network publish and discover each other's work.

Direct peers

• Chicago Council on Global Affairs: Runs large-scale annual surveys of American (and increasingly global) public opinion on foreign policy issues, with methodological rigor and policy-practitioner focus closely mirroring TRIP's expert surveys. While TRIP samples IR scholars and Chicago Council samples the general public, both occupy the niche of systematic, repeatable foreign-policy opinion measurement disseminated to policymakers and media.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/trip_irsurvey
• Facebookfacebook.com/wmTRIP
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wmtrip

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 Teaching, Research & International Policy (TRIP) Project