Altruistic Capital Lab

We carry out a model of research in the Lab which we call Co-generation of Knowledge. Its philosophical underpinning is that knowledge is decentralized and no one entity has a monopoly on knowledge.¹

Traditionally, we think about scientific knowledge as being created by academics—with the hope that this knowledge will inform policies and practices. Simultaneously, practitioners and policymakers generate their own knowledge, but this knowledge often does not make its way into scientific knowledge. These parallel streams often remain disconnected, resulting in significant knowledge loss for society. Transforming how knowledge is created — and who participates in that process — is essential to addressing these gaps.

Even when collaboration between academics and practitioners happens, it often takes the form of consulting (driven by the needs of practice) or extraction (driven by the needs of research). Instead of reinforcing this divide, we seek to identify questions that can both move the scientific frontier forward and are essential for a large-scale­­ practitioner partner.  This leads to deeper questions, which challenge traditional ideas in both practice and in academia. 

While there are many questions in practice that may not be important scientifically, and questions at the scientific frontier that are important but not immediately relevant to policy, we instead seek to find the overlap between

This philosophy of co-generation extends to the community level, where we work to strengthen people’s capacity to generate knowledge about their own lives and contexts. We believe that everyone has the right and responsibility to participate in knowledge generation.² When youth, community leaders, and residents learn the tools of systematic inquiry, they become scientists of their own communities, able to investigate the questions that matter most to them. Learning how to generate knowledge also builds trust in knowledge itself; people who understand this process are equipped to evaluate evidence and resilient against misinformation or anti-science sentiment

Putting Co-generation into Action

True co-generation requires trust, deep institutional knowledge, and collaborative design of both questions and methods — whether that involves field experiments, structural models, or machine learning with administrative data. For this reason, we embed ourselves deeply within partner organizations: fully co-designing interventions, aligning research agendas, and jointly implementing each step in a truly collaborative format.

Partners and Networks

Our partners fall into three groups:

• Core Lab Partners: organizations where most of the Lab’s research is generated.
• Future Partners: organizations positioned to become future research collaborators.
• Interested Learners: groups and individuals who follow results and may be inspired to apply or extend ideas in their own settings.

This model breaks down the traditional dichotomy between knowledge generated in the field by practitioners and knowledge produced in the ivory tower of academia. By fostering genuine collaboration, it enhances both the rigor of academic research and its real-world impact far beyond academic settings.