The Atlas of Innovation is a project of IFP
Intramural Science
Research conducted within government laboratories by government-employed scientists, enabling long-term focus on mission-critical problems.
Intramural science refers to research conducted within government laboratories by government-employed scientists. This approach allows agencies to build deep, sustained expertise in specific domains while maintaining direct control over research priorities. Intramural programs can pursue long-term research agendas insulated from external funding pressures and market forces.
The National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program illustrates this model. NIH employs thousands of scientists conducting research in its own laboratories, complementing the extramural grants it provides to universities. Intramural researchers can pursue high-risk, long-term projects that might struggle to attract external funding, and they provide in-house expertise that helps the agency evaluate external research and set priorities.
Intramural science works best when you want to build sustained institutional expertise in a domain, when research requires specialized facilities or security, when long-term continuity is more important than the diversity of approaches that external funding provides, or when you need in-house expertise to guide broader research investments. The tradeoff is potentially less diversity and dynamism than externally funded research.