The mission of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) is to offer education to the wider public about alternative arguments about, proposals for, and problems concerning, basic income as idea, institution, and public policy practice. To this end, BIEN organises public conferences around the world on an annual basis in which empirical research and new ideas are disseminated and discussed.

BIEN promotes and serves as a repository of published research, including congress papers, an academic blog featuring balanced debate for and against the basic income proposal in different contexts and forms, and by means of an independent academic journal linked with BIEN – Basic Income Studies.

BIEN does not subscribe to any particular version of basic income, and fosters evidenced-based research, plural debate, and critical engagement about basic income and related ideas and public policy developments. Individuals connected with BIEN – including affiliated organisations - may express particular opinions about basic income, but they are not opinions of BIEN.

BIEN’s explicit mission is to remain neutral among competing arguments for and against basic income and the relation of basic income with other ideas and policies.