Q-Lab: A New Initiative to Advance the Science of Questions

Questions shape what becomes visible, what is investigated, what is funded, and ultimately what societies come to know. They are fundamental not only to scientific inquiry but to a wide range of sectors and practices—from education and journalism to policymaking, medicine, law, and business, among others. Despite this foundational role, questions are seldom treated as objects of systematic study. Established fields examine intelligence, knowledge production, and decision-making, yet few, if any, take questions themselves as their subject.

Today, questions are most often discussed in narrow, instrumental terms: as prompts to feed an AI system or as items on a survey. Beyond these framings, we tend to assume that we are all naturally competent questioners, drawing on the innate urge to ask that emerges in early childhood and drives how we learn. Yet the capacity to ask does not guarantee the capacity to ask well.

How should we define a good question? Which questions are most likely to serve as stepping stones toward breakthrough insights? What kinds of questions inform different types of decisions? Who determines which questions matter most? How do we architect a line of inquiry: that is, how does one question productively lead to the next? How are curiosity and questioning related? Which questions endure across generations, and which quietly fade?

What, in short, do we actually know about questions?

At present, we lack a science of questions: a field dedicated to understanding how questions emerge, how they evolve, which questions make the greatest impact, and how they shape the trajectory of knowledge across disciplines and generations.

This gap has grown more consequential. As data science and artificial intelligence accelerate the production of answers at unprecedented scale, the capacity to formulate meaningful questions becomes increasingly central to inquiry. When answers grow abundant and are increasingly generated through automated processes, the framing of good questions emerges as a distinct frontier of human discovery.

The stakes extend well beyond research: in an era of disinformation and eroding trust, questions are also a vehicle for better-informed public debate and a healthier democracy, helping citizens interrogate claims, weigh evidence, and deliberate more thoughtfully.

To address this gap, The GovLab, with support from The John Templeton Foundation (opens in a new tab) and Siegel Family Endowment (opens in a new tab), is launching Q-Lab, a new initiative to advance the science of questions. Q-Lab seeks to establish questions as a field of study and practice, drawing on the science of science, epistemology, innovation studies, data and information science, and participatory inquiry, in order to help individuals and institutions navigate complexity and set better priorities.

Stefaan G. Verhulst, founder of Q-Lab, notes: "Questions should be treated not as a byproduct of the research process, but as core infrastructure for how institutions and societies learn, decide, and govern. This is why we are launching Q-Lab: to help societies ask better questions, and to direct attention to the problems that matter most."

Q-Lab builds on The GovLab's work over recent years to advance the science of questions, including the 100 Questions Initiative (opens in a new tab), which convened nearly 900 experts to identify the most important questions across nine core domains, alongside partners including the United Nations (opens in a new tab), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (opens in a new tab) (OECD), the Inter-American Development Bank (opens in a new tab), the European Commission (opens in a new tab), the Bertelsmann Foundation (opens in a new tab), the Gates Foundation (opens in a new tab), Schmidt Futures (opens in a new tab), data2x (opens in a new tab), The Asia Foundation (opens in a new tab), the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (opens in a new tab), the New Urban Mobility Alliance (opens in a new tab), the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (opens in a new tab), TUMI (opens in a new tab), and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering (opens in a new tab).

It also draws on our work mapping the landscape of unanswered questions in a field, developed with the Paul Ramsay Foundation (opens in a new tab), and on our broader efforts to advance inquiry-based philanthropy (opens in a new tab)—developed with the Siegel Family Endowment.

Q-Lab's work will span three core activities:

• Research — building the theoretical and empirical foundations of a science of questions. This will include novel research on the role of questioning in society, what makes a good question, and how questions emerge among other topics. We will also curate a research agenda for questions to help advance the field.
• Practice — developing methods and tools that help institutions ask and act on better questions. We will develop a set of taxonomies for defining and prioritizing questions across high-impact fields and toolkits to help institutions integrate questions-led approaches within their decision making processes. We will also seek to extend our 100 questions initiative into a permanent platform for prioritizing questions.
• Training — equipping individuals and organizations with the capacity to question more effectively. We will host Q-Labs or workshops to improve question fluency across several domains and industries.

This work will be steered by an International Committee on the Science of Questions, which will serve as the intellectual nucleus of the initiative. Composed of leading experts across science, philosophy, statistics, policymaking, philanthropy, journalism, and other domains, the Committee will help set Q-Lab's strategic direction over the next three years and contribute ongoing thought leadership to this emerging field.

Alongside the launch of Q-Lab, we are also launching a Substack, "The Science of Questions (opens in a new tab)," publishing biweekly articles on the foundations of question science, question methodologies, the role of questions in the AI era, and related topics.

We invite partners, researchers, and funders interested in co-developing the science of questions to contact us at [email protected].