RAND Corporation

The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is a non-partisan American nonprofit global policy think tank and research institute that conducts research and development (R&D) in multiple fields and industries including national security, military-defense, aerospace, education, public health, energy, the environment (environmental science, studies), economics, political science and international relations, infrastructure, law and criminology (criminal justice), anthropology, sociology, social policy, the social sciences, natural sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, and their application on public policy, public administration, and business administration issues.

It is largely financed by the U.S. government, private endowments, corporations, universities, charitable foundations, U.S. state and local governments, private individuals, international organizations, and in small part by foreign governments.

The RAND Corporation was originally founded in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company (predecessor of Boeing) to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. Today, it has diversified its fields of research beyond the defense industry and aerospace manufacturing, now entering into more civilian-serving areas such as "Education and the Arts;" "Health and Health Care;" "International Affairs;" "Energy, Environment, and Economic Development;" and "Military, Veterans, and Their Families".

The company assists other governments, international organizations, private companies and foundations with a host of defense and civilian-serving non-defense issues, including healthcare and education. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving by translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, using applied science, operations research, and policy analysis. Provided by Wikipedia