What Roots of Progress Institute does
Roots of Progress Institute (RPI) is a US-based 501(c)(3) public educational nonprofit that works to establish a “new philosophy of progress” for the 21st century and to build a “culture of progress.” It frames progress as something that can be understood, supported, and accelerated rather than treated as automatic or inevitable, and it aims to do this through research and community-building activities centered on progress studies—spanning history, philosophy, and practical public-facing education about scientific, technological, and industrial progress.
Programmatically, RPI runs (1) a fellowship intended to accelerate the careers of “progress intellectuals” (writers/researchers who communicate progress studies to broader audiences), (2) an annual multi-day Progress Conference that convenes writers, builders, policymakers, academics, and other progress-community leaders, and (3) additional community infrastructure such as online spaces (e.g., Progress Forum / Progress Studies Slack referenced by RPI).
A distinctive strategic emphasis is “investing in people for a limited time” to produce sustained intellectual output: RPI’s fellowship is explicitly structured around improving fellows’ ability to write and build audiences so that independent writers can continue producing progress studies content after the program.
RPI also launched “Progress in Medicine,” a summer career exploration program for high school students, as an initial course offering (with scholarship availability noted by RPI) that uses real-world mentorship and case studies in the history and future of medicine and biotechnology to steer young people toward “builder” careers.