It is directed by Ambassador David M. Satterfield and funded mainly by donor contributions, endowments, and research grants.

The institute also houses programs on biomedical research, China studies, U.S. health systems transformation, drug policy, global health, international economics, Latin America, presidential elections, religion and public policy, science and technology, space, and the rights of women and refugees.

[4] In addition to its research, the institute offers programs for undergraduate and graduate students to engage with the world of policy and organizes events in which political, diplomatic, and community leaders speak on Rice's campus.

[5] In 1994, a ceremony to honor the ground-breaking for the new building brought together four U.S. presidents: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W.

The program brings together well-known speakers and researchers to offer their insights into the complex challenges facing the Middle East.

The initiative focuses on the challenges and opportunities that face the region and “brings together leading stakeholders from government, the private sector, academia, and civil society to exchange their views on pressing issues confronting the region.”[13] The McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation aims to provide policymakers, scholars and the general public with comprehensive analyses of the issues that affect entrepreneurship and innovation at three levels: federal and state policy, municipal ecosystems, and academic entrepreneurship and innovation.

The center's research agenda currently focuses on eight major issues: trade, energy, telecommunications, health care, infrastructure, education, human mobility, and the administration of justice/security.

[17] The International Space Medicine Summit brings together “leading physicians, space biomedical scientists, engineers, astronauts and cosmonauts from the space-faring nations for high-level discussions about the research needed to prevent and/or mitigate the medical and biomedical challenges spacefarers experience in long-duration spaceflight.”[18] Notable staff have included Neal F. Lane and the late George W.S.

The Science and Technology Policy Program focuses on issues that include “space, health, medicine, energy and the environment, national and domestic security, science education, and the public’s understanding and trust of science.”[19] Notable staff include Robert Bazell, Neal F. Lane, Kristin R.W.

It was a bipartisan panel with the mandate to "conduct a forward-looking, independent assessment of the current and prospective situation on the ground in Iraq, its impact on the surrounding region, and consequences for U.S.

[3] The Baker Institute also publishes the Rice Journal of Public policy, which is the “undergraduate journal of scholarship in domestic and international public policy.”[23] The Master of Global Affairs Program is a 2-year professional master’s degree program developed by the Baker Institute and Rice’s School of Social Sciences.