Turning big ideas into real-world impact
In 2019, we mobilized the science, technology and innovation communities to equip the next presidential administration with 100 implementation-ready policy proposals. Our call for ideas received an overwhelming response, and in the process we refined a vision for policy entrepreneurship: how anyone can turn a promising idea into real-world impact.
Since then, we have supported a growing community of contributors in developing policy ideas — many of which have already become policy. Together these efforts have catalyzed private sector innovation, advanced regional economic development, and brought leading talent into government.
Turn Your Idea to Impact
Have an innovative new idea but not where to start? The Day One Project helps turn ideas into action-ready policies through topic-specific programs or the Open Call, which is currently prioritizing ideas for the federal government on issues critical to the future of the science and the research enterprise:
- How can the federal government increase the responsiveness, speed, and experimentation of scientific funding models?
- How can the federal government ensure high quality research and uphold research integrity through innovation in replication, peer review, tech-enabled reviews, and other metascience approaches?
- How can the federal government improve the academic and research talent pipeline, including through international talent mobility?
- How can the federal government enable creative R&D funding approaches, such as through public-private collaborations, geographically-centered research, prizes and competitions, and efficiency improvements?
- How can the federal government modernize the research enterprise to ensure it delivers measurable public impact?
Here’s what we need to work with you:
- The concise summary of your idea, including any research or data that supports your proposed course of action
- The pressing societal problem your idea aims to address
- Why this issue is urgent and why now is the right moment to act
- The intended customer or decision-maker for your idea, and the specific steps they would take to implement your solution
- What becomes possible if your idea is successfully and fully implemented
Looking for inspiration? Read the latest Day One memos.
A Day One policy memo is a concise proposal that communicates clear, actionable policy recommendations. These focused pieces of writing highlight opportunities for innovation and outline implementation strategies that policymakers can adopt and adapt. Day One memos equip decision-makers with information needed to act, not merely to identify a problem or raise situational awareness. Read the latest Day One memos.
Publication with FAS requires confirmed participation in a memo-writing program. You can submit an idea to our Open Call, or to topic-specific accelerators and sprints listed below. Submission generally requires a concise summary of your idea and a few sentences describing the challenge, opportunity, and plan of action.
Depending on the program, you’ll receive a mix of resources, training, feedback, and coaching to support the development of your policy memo. At a minimum, you’ll engage in written exchanges with our team of experts and may also be required to participate in scheduled training sessions. The time commitment is usually a few hours per week over 4-12 weeks, depending on the program.
Ideas are accepted year-round through the Open Call, and submissions are reviewed monthly. If you are accepted and agree to participate, you’ll coordinate a memo development timeline with your staff contact. Accelerators and sprints have varying submission and development deadlines.
Some resources are publicly available on the Day One Project Action Hub. While these resources are available for general reference, they should not be reproduced or reused without permission.
The Colorado Future Systems Policy Sprint is a three-month initiative designed to harness subject matter expertise and localized community insights to develop actionable policy solutions for Colorado’s executive and legislative leaders.
The federal government is closely examining how it plays a role in supporting students, families, and educators – reimagining its approach to funding education R&D, pausing much of its investment in education outside the U.S., and completely reconceiving the structure of agencies responsible for education.
For our SOURCE CODE: AI Trust and Fairness Sprint, we’ve developed 10 memos with leading experts that are detailed, implementable policy solutions for burgeoning AI concerns.
Through the cultivation of academic networks and publishing research that maps directly to learning agendas, we are helping to operationalize the next generation of evidence-based governance.
The evidence is clear: algorithmic pay-setting is established in app-based work, and payroll/timekeeping failures show how software can produce systemic wage harm at scale
While a few states have taken steps to implement decision-making mechanisms for certain AI systems, too many leaders are simply accepting narratives about AI’s purported public benefit at face value – jumping to the “how” of AI implementation before thoroughly vetting potential systems and deciding whether they are appropriate to use at all.
When properly structured — with specific numeric targets, secured financial obligations, independent monitoring, and meaningful enforcement — CBAs transform data center deals into durable community partnerships.
Protecting the public from the tech industry’s predatory business models and the next wave of AI harms is an enormous challenge, but we have the evidence that trying to build a healthier digital culture is absolutely worth the effort.
“I feel I have a much clearer vision of how the government operates and how we can make things happen in the nation. The guidance helps not only to push forward new policy but also how I apply for grants at NSF and how I integrate policy discussions in my research papers (which can help me to ensure i have much better impact)”
“The Day One accelerator took me from 0 to 100 in 9 weeks: Literally from zero knowledge about policy-making to feeling very confident about what I need to do to affect it. The knowledge alone is just one part, and the hard work lies ahead, but Day One was superb at conveying the knowledge, and also in showing how within reach policy influence could be.”
“As a graduate student studying public policy, I found that the Day One Project did a brilliant job of concisely distilling and substantiating in 9 weeks some of the most important lessons I’d learned over the course of a year. More importantly, they took these lessons three steps further by adding practical insights on the reality of policy entrepreneurship, by having us test and refine our ideas with our cohort and seasoned policymakers, and by pushing us to publish and implement our proposals.”
“This was a fantastic experience. I teach graduate students about US information and telecommunications policy and the opportunity to share what I’ve been working on with them and to bring in some of the lessons I’ve learned about writing about policy in a concise and persuasive way was awesome. I appreciate the resources that your team has developed and the time you spent to think with me about developing a coherent proposal. I learned a great deal from the guests, too.”