Research Center Affiliation Program

The LORL Research Center Affiliation Program formally links LORL to college and university research centers and institutes within the LORL Academic Network that conduct research on issues and problems of concern to state government policy makers.

Program Objectives

The Research Center Affiliation Program is intended to achieve the following objectives:

Open lines of communication to research center faculty at institutions within the LORL Academic Network;
Enhance the incentives of research center faculty to examine state-level policy and issues, as well as important and thought-provoking topics and questions about Pennsylvania politics, history and culture;
Increase the number of quality nonpartisan research summaries and policy reports from LORL Network colleges and universities that are tailored directly to state policy needs;
Generate high quality studies of state politics, history, culture and policy to be published in informal LORL publications, in the journal COMMONWEALTH or in other professional publications;
Establish and maintain an online searchable relational database of centers and institutes affiliated with LORL, incorporating data on current and past research projects and reports, affiliated faculty and their research interests, and links to center websites, in order to foster collaboration among Network colleges and universities, and facilitate research contract referrals;
Establish an online Research Notification System to notify LORL and affiliated centers of new studies that have state policy relevance as they are initiated;
Establish a LORL Futures Collaborative comprised of the directors of the affiliated centers and institutes to alert LORL of impending problems/issues that are not yet on the state policy agenda;
Create a formal issues referral system for researchers to query LORL concerning issues on which state policy makers would like further analysis and study;
Supply LORL with updates and preliminary findings of ongoing research projects as they are available that LORL can summarize, aggregate and distribute in informal newsletters to interested legislators and staff.

Incentives

The Director or designee of each affiliated institute or center is automatically appointed Faculty Associate in LORL with accompanying resources and privileges. Appointment is for a legislative session and renewable. Each center/institute is profiled in a LORL Directory of Affiliated Research Centers. The profile and related information is maintained in an online searchable database for referrals.
Relevant studies are summarized in LORLines or other appropriate LORL in-house publications.
The journal COMMONWEALTH is encouraged as a medium for publishing state policy studies under University Committee for Research Liaison-developed guidelines.
LORL provides financial and logistical support for research presentations at conferences and legislative committee meetings where LORL is involved.

Affiliation Procedures

Affiliation must be approved by LORL, an appropriate administrative officer of the academic entity, and the research center/institute director. The term of affiliation is a two-year legislative session, with automatic renewal unless terminated by one of the parties.
Affiliation may be terminated with 30-day advance notice by any one of the three parties.

Confidentiality/Disclosure/Security Restrictions

LORL and research centers/institutes must formally agree to comply with one another's confidentiality, security and disclosure regulations.