Pursuant to our think-tanks recognition and mission as a public service organization, CPI forms Centers to translate research to public policy, and develop new policy to serve the greater-good of the Commonwealth. As a pilot organization - our partnered Centers are at an early stage working with individual faculty. It is a key focus of our strategic plan to grow our Centers across research groups in the state university system, where new chapters may form in the process. Our centers are born from a working partnership between CPI and university research institutes. Our work connected to CPI Centers is published on this page, and in CPI's Commonwealth Policy Papers facilitated by the University of Louisville repository.

When a research institute partners with CPI to form a Center, CPI offers a valuable impact pathway allowing the input of research institute faculty to fuse throughout the lifecycle of our policy proposal development. This creates an opportunity for Kentucky's research institutes to place their mark on policy innovation and legislation, and for CPI to be research informed and evidence based in it's work - a partnership for Kentucky-Proud policy. All CPI Centers require a minimum degree of university faculty involvement - which we are looking to grow. CPI addresses policy areas focused on by state committees within each of our broader themed centers.

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The Center Process

Policy teams in each center first identify key issue areas from a synthesis of information - either from legislator partners, stakeholders, practical mixed method policy research, or Associates screening a set of initial proposals on issue topics with legislators. Identifying most-promising solutions from synthesizing feedback and analysis of data, CPI members work with each Center to consult multiple policy drafts for feedback from internal center partners, networking with stakeholders, public officials, interest groups and individuals refered to by legislators, to evolve a research-based policy solution that remains nonpartisan and is practically tailored for passage.

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Likewise, CPI practitioners are in the process of working to bring on new Center partners, and look across the research output of Kentucky research institutes relevant to state & local policy and key committee areas, to monitor or build policy recommendations from that research and issues of focus. CPI will soon be in the process of developing a regular hybrid caucus meeting of partners in each Center to meet throughout the year on this process.

Centers publish resulting policy briefs freely in the Commonwealth Policy Papers below, and work to see the introduction of solutions as local or state legislation. CPI only pursues matters which are nonpartisan as reviewed by discretionary standards of the CPI advisory board. CPI Centers are Commonwealth centric, with policy development focused around the state level, and local level where appropriate. Within this approach, CPI conducts Congressional Summits to "trickle up" broader aspects of state & local solutions to the federal level, and incorporates federal and Congressional feedback on CPI's Commonwealth centric work.

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