The UVM Vermont Legislative Research Service (or VLRS, formerly the Vermont Legislative Research Shop) is a supervised group of students pooled together with the resources of UVM for the purpose of supplying information and conducting research for the Vermont State Legislature. The idea for this service originally came from discussions between Professor Anthony Gierzynski of the UVM Political Science Department and Representative (now former Senator) Matt Dunne. Professor Gierzynski implemented the idea in 1998 by creating The Vermont Legislative Research Shop class and has operated the service since that time. In 2010 the VLRS became part of the UVM Jeffords Center until 2013 when the Jeffords Center's funding ran out.

The purpose of this help is to provide objective and factual information to legislators as they deliberate on complex policy issues here in Vermont. The students who are doing this research are part of a course offered at UVM. The course is supervised by Professor Anthony Gierzynski whose training, research, and teaching includes comparative state politics, that is, studying what is going on politically in all of the U.S. states.

The types of research requests we should be able to fill include: investigations into practices and programs in other states (through the Web, the NCSL, and phone contact with other state officials); queries about social science studies on various issues; information on federal programs and grants; and, information regarding the state of Vermont.

Legislators should keep in mind that we will not be able to fill all requests due to time constraints and/or difficulty in finding the requested information but we will do our best on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Requests should be submitted via email to anthony.gierzynski@uvm.edu or via phone to Anthony Gierzynski at 656-7973. Requests for information should be as specific as possible. Include the date by which you need the information, your name and how to contact you in your email. Please use the Research Request Form whenever possible.