DOD on Tuesday launched a new independent research group to make the department’s operations smoother and more efficient. The Defense Management Institute will be part of the nonprofit Institute for Defense Analyses, as Defense News reported. It will seek input from experts, lawmakers and others to improve management, organization, performance and enterprise business solutions.

“It’s groundbreaking, because never before has there been an institute dedicated solely to performance improvement,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said. “Management reform advances the entire department, including acquisition [and] technology ― all of which are essential to the department’s mission and to directly support the warfighter.”

Part of the institute’s mission will be to create an archive of past research by the department, its independent commissions, academia and think tanks.

“This creates an organization and a body of people whose full-time job will be building the intellectual basis for better decision making,” said Todd Harrison, managing director at Metrea Strategic Insights. “[But it] must be willing to speak truth to power to be credible.”

DOD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders