information futures lab

where ideas and evidence meet policy and practice

Our lab is where technology, innovation, policy and community meet, one pilot at a time.

When it comes to online information needs, we’re listening!

Introducing The Information Project — a student-driven investigation into the information needs of communities. Learn more from our recorded overview session or dive into reports on climate, mental health, and reproductive heath.

What we do

We transform information spaces.

Bad information harms people, economies and democracies. Quick fixes won’t solve the problem. We envision a different future for our information spaces, habits, institutions and culture.

We empower those who prevent misinformation and build trust.

We provide resources, skills and knowledge to help organizations, communities and leaders build trust and mitigate misinformation.

We drive collaboration.

Complex challenges need collaborative problem- solving. We connect researchers across disciplines and thinkers with doers. We connect funders with innovators and change-agents with peers.

We think globally.

Up to this point, most of what we know about the way trust and information work is based on research done in the United States. IFL’s worldwide network of collaborators ensures that different cultural, historical, political and religious contexts are taken into account.

We examine more than just the social networks.

Platforms are only one part of the crisis. IFL acknowledges that information travels through many channels, and that all information touchpoints matter, online or offline.

We are multidisciplinary.

IFL works with those in academia, public health, newsrooms, community-based organizations, libraries, schools, government agencies and technology companies.

We think in years, not months.

IFL is dedicated to constant testing to measure the impact of confusing, low-quality or absent information, and discover what provides long-term protection and healthy information spaces. 

innovative leadership

The Information Futures Lab is co-founded and co-directed by two communication experts who have deep experience of working in and with newsrooms, non-profits, startups, government agencies and Universities around the world. They have both developed programs and led innovative change across a number of different institutions.

Claire Wardle Ph.D.

Claire Wardle Ph.D.

Claire Wardle designed and implemented the earliest organization-wide training programs in verification and misinformation in 2009 with the BBC. She also co-founded First Draft, a non-profit that worked globally, inventing new terminology, methods and resources for mitigating misinformation.

Stefanie Friedhoff

Stefanie Friedhoff

Stefanie Friedhoff covered major news stories on three continents before bringing innovations such as the Trauma Journalism Program and the Global Health Reporting Fellowship to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. Now, at the Brown School of Public Health, she leads key Covid-19 response initiatives and creates research translation and verification projects that inform millions of Americans.

hear our story

Listen to an interview with Dr. Claire Wardle

Professor Wardle talks to Megan Hall, host of the Humans in Public Health podcast, about plans for collaborative work at Brown that aims not only to understand mis- and disinformation, but to create tools for more effective public health communication. 

WE FIGURE OUT WHAT WORKS AND BRING IT TO THOSE WHO CAN ACT ON IT

Figuring out what works — designing, implementing and testing interventions — is only the first part of the process. Getting what works into conversations and communities is what makes change. And we can’t do that alone. We work alongside leaders in different parts of the world and different work and life experiences to understand how information needs vary and create opportunities to share solutions. Ready to learn more? Learn more about our priorities, our fellowship program, and the information communities we support around the world.

Fellows Program

Living Lit Review

v

News

The future of information is here

Sign up for updates and news as we embark on this important mission.

* indicates required
Please select all the ways you would like to hear from the Information Futures Lab:
You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails.
We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.