Over the past decade, more than 10 billion dollars has been invested in Pittsburgh tech companies, with more than 3.5 billion invested in 2021 alone. With the context of such strong sectoral growth in mind, RAND researchers set out to characterize the science- and technology-focused (STF) workforce ecosystem in the Pittsburgh region and suggest policy changes and investment opportunities to help propel the region's STF sectors in the future.

Maintaining and even increasing force readiness in light of changing climate threats is a key part of meeting high-level U.S. strategic goals. In this report, researchers describe a study they conducted to develop links between climate and readiness.

There are many ways to pay for postsecondary education, and one increasingly common option is an income share agreement (ISA). Under an ISA, the learner promises a share of their pre-tax earnings to a funder for a set period after the learner finishes or stops their program. The learner makes payments only when their earnings are high enough, and their payments increase when their earnings increase. Thus, an ISA can function like an insurance policy on the value of education or training. ISAs can be used to finance both college degrees and workforce training, but not all institutions offer them. Because ISA documents and program materials can be difficult to understand, RAND researchers created this tool to help people who are pursuing postsecondary education figure out whether an ISA is right for them. It provides information about how ISAs work, how to estimate monthly and total ISA payments, how to weigh benefits and risks of ISAs and compare them with other funding methods, and how to translate the complex and sometimes misleading language in ISA documents.