Research in the open.
The Kensora Institute is being established to do the mental-health research a company cannot credibly grade itself on, and to keep the outputs public.
Four commitments, all public.
The work the Institute is being formed to carry out, described as intent rather than as programs operating today.
- 1An open-source mental-health model. Methods and weights published openly, so researchers and clinicians can inspect them rather than take a vendor's word.
- 2Independent validation. Research on whether these tools do what they say, run by people who do not sell the product, and validation that is specific to who is using them, since a tool checked in adults is not thereby proven for adolescents or younger people.
- 3Public safety evaluations. Open tests of how mental-health tools behave in hard moments, shared so the whole field can learn.
- 4Open crisis-resource data. Verified, openly maintained directories of support lines, free for anyone to use.
Independence you can inspect, not just trust.
The point of doing this as an independent nonprofit is that the work should not rest on taking any company's word. The principles the Institute is being organized around:
- Publish methods openly and reproducibly, so others can check the work rather than accept a summary of it.
- Keep independence from any product's commercial interest, so the findings are not shaped by what would help sell something.
- Hold evidence to a standard higher than marketing, and let the evidence set the claims rather than the other way around.
- Never overclaim, and mark the gaps honestly instead of filling them.
Any forward-looking research described here is in development: provisional, honest, and never a diagnosis.
None yet, and we will say so.
There are no publications yet. The Institute is newly incorporated with no publications yet, and this section is honest about that.
As the work matures, methods, evaluations, and open data will be published openly on this page. The Institute will not describe research it has not done. When there is something real to show, it will appear here with the methods attached, not just a headline.
Follow the work, or help shape it.
Researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experience who want to follow the work or collaborate are welcome to reach out.