MetroLab Network’s city-university partnerships are mutually-beneficial relationships in which the university is the city’s R&D department and the city is the test-bed. Faculty and students get access to real-life laboratories to test approaches that are aimed to address city priorities and challenges. Cities, and their residents, benefit from the university’s technical expertise and creativity in addressing those challenges.
Community-focused science doesn’t sit in a single academic discipline or city function. MetroLab has convened an emerging, cross-disciplinary practice of academics and local government policymakers who seek to advance policy and community priorities. MetroLab membership includes those at the leading edge of this new practice and MetroLab helps promote and scale their work.
In 2017, MetroLab launched its Data Science and Human Services Lab, an effort to bring together academics, city and county practitioners, and non-profit leaders to consider the issues at the intersection of technology, analytics, and human services deployment. We’ve cultivated this community and have developed a series of reports designed to frame new, complex data science topics for a public sector and practitioner audience.
MetroLab leverages its platform to highlight impactful tech, data, and innovation projects underway between local governments and universities. Our Innovation of the Month partnership with GovTech Magazine has helped gain visibility for emerging projects looking for additional funding and deployment partners.
