The Institute for the Study of Violent Groups is an open source research center at the University of New Haven that provides custom data collection and information services to enhance knowledge of violent extremism and transnational crime. The Institute's research capability supports defense and the interagency by providing data and analytics for decision support.

Since its establishment in 2003, ISVG has consistently collected and coded data hence developing the most comprehensive ontology on transnational threat networks worldwide. ISVG's projects support real-world missions across defense and the interagency, providing high quality data and analytics to the government, while preparing the next generation of analysts, investigators, and operators. The Institute employs student researchers to perform highly sophisticated open source exploitation and leverages partnerships with cutting edge technology providers for the creation of complex data analytics and reports. Due to the Institute's student fueled collection and aggregation efforts, organizations now have access to high quality data on topics that are generally understudied due to the high cost of human data collection efforts, meanwhile empowering students with real-world experience in the area of national security.

ISVG was officially formed in 2003 by Dr. Richard Ward, then the Dean of the College of Criminal Justice, at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. In 2008, Dr. Ward moved ISVG to the University of New Haven in West Haven, CT. ISVG now has open source data exploitation activities at several locations in the United States working on a wide variety of projects. ISVG serves as a trusted research partner across multiple government agencies and is committed to ensuring that data collection efforts are compliant with the end-user's requirements. A three-tiered quality control process ascertains transparency, accuracy, and accountability from the researchers, database content, and analytic products. To learn more of ISVG's capabilities, please download our data-sheet.