Programs
MetroLab Network’s “In the Lab” is a program that features our policy work and thought leadership. This program will include several task forces that will result in policy best practices or model templates. MetroLab will staff and host convenings, resulting in publications.
2023-2024: Gen-AI for Local Governments
2022-2023: Data Governance Initiative
The Civic Innovation Challenge is a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities. It aims to flip the community-university dynamic, inviting communities to identify civic priorities ripe for innovation and to then partner with researchers to address those priorities.
The purpose of the Mobility Center of Excellence (COE) is to collect, conduct, and fund research on the impacts of new mobility and highly automated vehicles on land use, urban design, transportation, real estate, equity, and municipal budgets. The COE shall seek to develop an understanding of how new mobility and automated vehicles may impact the evolving transportation system when deployed at scale.
MetroLab Network is one of several sub-awardees working on this effort, via the University of California, Los Angeles.
MetroLab is launching our new Local Government Research & Development Agenda program, which ultimately aims to create a trusted policy document that identifies priority research areas that can address local governments’ complex issues and needs. We aim to do this by working with 20 cities nationwide to host workshops with nearby colleges and universities to ask the question “if you could get research on [blank], what would you want.” You can learn more about this effort here.
Data Governance Workshops
Data Governance Workshops
Building off of our Model Data Governance Policy And Practice Guide, MetroLab is working with communities across the US in providing day-long workshops for city, county and other local government officials in learning about these principles. Workshops can be structured to obtain Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits or as a structured workshop for both legal and non-legal staff. Please contact us at info(at)metrolabnetwork(dot)org if you’d like to learn more.
The 2025 Challenge closed in January. Finalists will be announced soon!