Keystone
Landscape Analysis · NSF 26-508

Before we coordinate, we read the terrain.

An audited, citation-backed evidence base for every U.S. state, DC, and the five territories, so the question “which jurisdictions, and on what footing” rests on facts, not assertion.

56
jurisdictions · 50 states · DC · 5 territories
~26
authoritative federal sources
8
dimensions · 37 sub-indicators
5×2
LLM agents × independent providers

Evidence, not opinion.

A coordination hub has to know the ground it stands on. The landscape analysis is the foundation that lets jurisdiction selection, and, later, the live hub itself, rest on defensible, auditable facts. It is deliberately neutral: it produces the evidence and leaves the decision to a transparent step that anyone can inspect.

One pipeline, every jurisdiction.

The same three stages run for all 56, FIPS-keyed end to end.

~26 federal sources
Economy & labor
BLS QCEWBEA SAGDPCensus ACSCensus BTOS
Research & education
CarnegieNSF HERDNSF awardsIPEDSED OPEED Perkins
Federal AI programs
NSF AI InstitutesNAIRRNSF EnginesNSF EPSCoREDA Tech HubsDOE H2 HubsManufacturing USA
Workforce
DOL WIOADOL RAPIDSDOL AJC
Access & reach
CDC SVIBIA directoryUSDA RUCCUSDA NIFACDFI Fund
Fiscal & civic
Pew Fiscal50S&P (public snapshot)Ballotpedia governors
01
Quantitative

Landscape

Deterministic Python pulls every federal source, vintage-stamps it, and computes it into eight dimensions across 37 sub-indicators. Reproducible: same inputs, same numbers.

  • ~26 source fetchers → cache
  • 8 dimensions · 37 sub-indicators
  • every value cited + confidence-graded

partial_profiles/<fips>.partial.json

02
Qualitative

Profiling

Five independent LLM agents read each jurisdiction, run on two providers so no single model's claim stands alone.

  • 01 partner-identifier · 02 ops-narrator
  • 03 ai-maturity · 04 bipartisan-history
  • 05 hub-status-verifier

profiles/<fips>/<provider>/<agent>.json

03
Integration

Merger

Fuses quantitative + qualitative under explicit precedence rules, derives the confidence flags, and validates every profile against a fixed schema. Owns no original data; it only integrates.

  • path-merge + precedence
  • derived §G confidence flags
  • schema-validated, 56/56

profiles/<fips>.json

One audited master profile per jurisdiction

Eight dimensions, partner candidates, sector priorities, regulatory backdrop, federal hubs, access & reach geography - and a confidence ledger of every gap, low-confidence value, and stale vintage.

partA dimensionspartB partnerspartC sectorspartD regulatorypartE federal hubspartF access & reachpartG confidence

→ hands off to the Keystone hub

the evidence base behind jurisdiction selection (a weighted, sensitivity-tested decision memo), and the seed for the Registry, whose seats the profiles already name.

What it produces: three real profiles.

Unedited values from the actual run. Note the partner seats are the same agnostic roles the hub's Registry runs on; the analysis already names who could fill them , and that Montana’s S&P rating is honestly marked NR, never guessed.

Pennsylvania

PA · 42
R1 universities
7
HERD research $
$6.5B
S&P rating
A+
land-grant
yes

recommended sectors

healthcaremanufacturingeducation
BackboneTeam Pennsylvania Foundation

nonprofit

Access & Reach GuarantorPA Human Relations Commission

state agency

0 missing · 3 low-confidence · 6 stale · every value cited

California

CA · 06
R1 universities
14
HERD research $
$14.4B
S&P rating
AA-
land-grant
yes

recommended sectors

manufacturinghealthcareeducation
BackboneCalifornia Forward

nonprofit

Access & Reach GuarantorCDPH Office of Health Equity

state agency

0 missing · 3 low-confidence · 7 stale · every value cited

Montana

EPSCoRMT · 30
R1 universities
2
HERD research $
$430M
S&P rating
NR
land-grant
yes

recommended sectors

manufacturinghealthcareeducation
BackboneMontana Economic Developers Assoc.

nonprofit

Access & Reach GuarantorOffice of Indian Affairs

tribal-nations liaison

1 missing · 4 low-confidence · 5 stale · every value cited

Snapshot from the 2026-04-28 run · the live evidence base sits behind the backend's /profiles + /selection APIs.

Eight dimensions of readiness.

37 sub-indicators, each tracing back to a cited federal source.

D1

Economic diversity

BLS QCEW · BEA SAGDP

D2

Sector alignment

QCEW + GVA vs AI-exposed sectors

D3

Lead-org capacity

Carnegie R1s · NSF HERD $ · land-grant

D4

AI maturity

Census BTOS + maturity scout

D5

Workforce

WIOA · RAPIDS · Perkins · CC

D6

Competitive pressure

in-jurisdiction federal hubs

D7

Access & reach

CDC SVI · ACS · BIA · MSIs · geography

D8

Stability

S&P · rainy-day · governor turnover

What makes it defensible.

Every cell is cited

Each measurement carries its source, table, and retrieval date, plus a confidence grade: high, med, low, or missing.

No imputation

Unknowns are marked missing, never guessed. A territory a source doesn't cover stays explicitly blank.

Jurisdiction-portable

One FIPS-keyed schema for all 56. A state, DC, or a territory is just data, never special-cased.

Evidence, not verdict

It refuses to rank. It emits evidence and routing flags; the actual selection is a separate, transparent scoring step.

The landscape is the “know the terrain” layer; Keystone is the “coordinate on it” layer, and the same coordination seats the hub runs on are exactly what the analysis already names, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.