Institute For Applied Neuroscience

Science for good: science is now at the heart of everything we must do to save our world. Institute for Applied Neuroscience puts science to work, for real-world impact.

IAN is an independent, nonprofit research and training organization. Our neuroscientists and organizational strategists connect with thought leaders in public and private sectors to solve critical social issues. Our mission is to give people and organizations the tools to live a better life by understanding the mind.

The Problem

Many discoveries about how and why people behave the way they do remain siloed in academia
The result is policy and practice that can be divorced from known principles of human behavior

Our Solution

We provide a bridge for the public and private sectors to gain access to information generated by academic researchers, to provide resources and programs that support evidence-based decision-making

What this looks like

As a MacArthur Scholar, co-founder Dr Melina Uncapher's work in the Stanford Memory Lab helps inform decision-making by judges and attorneys confronted with issues related to how human memory impacts the criminal justice system, such as biases in eyewitness identification, or whether neuroimaging technology can detect true from false memory or even concealed memories.

The aim of the Institute is to extend this work into other areas of the public and private sectors, such as:

• Healthcare (Patient safety, Doctor-patient communication, Patient decision-making)
• Education (Motivation to learn, Information overload, Student-teacher communication)
• Law enforcement and juvenile justice
• Local, national, global business
• Leadership (government, community, healthcare, corporate, nonprofit)

We aim to create dialogue between scientists and thought leaders in the public and private sectors in order to:
Identify areas where policy and practice runs in opposition to known principles of human behavior
Generate programmatic options to ground policy and practice in sustainable, evidence-based behaviors
Train thought leaders in optimal and sustainable implementation of such evidence-based practices

A successful interface between science and society requires highly skilled strategists who can identify information gaps and deliver programs to decision-makers in the public and private sectors. Co-founders Rick Foster and Greg Hicks are organizational strategists with close to 20 years of experience delivering high-impact programs grounded in their research on human behavior across seven continents. As such, they are well-positioned to generate and deliver programs that translate research discoveries into the 'how' of creating evidence-based policy reform, and high-trust, high-performance cultures for healthy communities and effective organizations.

Outreach

As a public benefit organization, we are committed to disseminating information about how and why people behave the way they do to the public in a highly accessible manner. Dr Kevin Weiner directs the Public Communication arm of the Institute, creating brain-based interactive online platforms that are tailored to multiple ages and learning styles. Our goal is to be the most highly trusted resource for parents, educators, students, and journalists to understand the human brain and its behavior.