For Client Partners & Cities
Bring the Field Lab to Your Community
Field Lab projects offer city and agency partners a pathway to insight translating complex public problems into clear analysis, tools, and findings that inform decision-making. Each project is designed to support project partners with expert faculty guidance and student talent from across Harvard Kennedy School.
What Makes a Great Partner Project?
A Real, Timely, and Complex Problem with Decision Impact
- The most successful projects are tied to concrete decisions the city or agency must make—be it around budgeting, infrastructure, compliance, development, or new program design.
- The best problems balance urgency (“this matters now”) with complexity (trade-offs, data gaps, competing interests, or stakeholder friction).
Data and Stakeholder Access
- The city can provide timely and sufficient data—financials, maps, costs, usage, operational info—even if imperfect.
- Equally important is the willingness to open doors: interviews with staff, property managers, community groups, or local businesses deepen the analysis and make solutions implementable.
- Field labs thrive on iterative feedback: the best city partners meet students partway for regular check-ins.
Clear, Defined Scope with Room for Flexibility
- The underlying question is sharply posed (“How do we finance the resilience plan?” “What’s the impact of zoning changes?”).
- Yet, there needs to be room for exploration—students may identify related barriers or opportunities and can add more value than a rigid scope would allow.
Potential for Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
- Projects that allow students to build a simple, transparent financial or decision model—be it a pro-forma, a benefit-cost framework, or a prioritization tool—generate the most usable results.
- Visual/spatial elements, such as GIS mapping or scenario overlays, help make the work actionable for policymakers and the public.
Deliverables the City Can Actually Use
- A great project produces more than a report—it delivers an actionable tool, dashboard, or specific policy recommendations that can be plugged directly into budget, planning, or communications.
- Cases like NSRL, the Newburyport pro-forma, or the BERDO Excel tool enabled real-world “what if” analysis and concrete next steps.
Mutual Learning
- The best field labs are partnerships. City partners who candidly share their organizational, political, and operational constraints help students “see around corners.” Students bring fresh eyes, technical skills, and comparative benchmarks.
Project Scoping & Partner Engagement
We follow a structured and collaborative scoping process for both Field Lab courses. While the steps are consistent, the timing differs depending on the semester.
Cities, towns, and agencies submit project concepts or respond to outreach from the Field Lab team.
This stage identifies potential areas of collaboration and high-impact problems.
Timing:
- DPI-325 (Fall): June–August
- MLD-412 (Spring): October–January
Faculty meet directly with:
- Mayors or city managers
- Department heads (Planning, Finance, Public Works, Mobility, Sustainability, Housing)
- Relevant senior staff
Meetings confirm:
- Executive buy-in
- Decision relevance
- Data availability
- Operational and political context
- Feasibility within a 14-week semester
Timing:
- DPI-325: late summer (June–August)
- MLD-412: late fall and early winter (October–December), with final confirmation in January
Faculty refine the project question, clarify deliverables, and establish communication expectations.
A senior staff champion is designated as the ongoing partner for the student team.
Timing:
DPI-325: finalized in late August
MLD-412: finalized in mid-January
Throughout the semester, student teams conduct multiple site visits, check-ins, data collection, interviews, and analysis under close faculty supervision.
All Field Lab teams present their findings on-site, typically at:
• City Hall
• A municipal department office
• State House or agency headquarters
Senior officials attend the presentation, and all tools and models are transitioned to staff.
Collaboration Request Form for Greater Boston Applied Field Lab
If you are interested in collaborating with the Great Boston Field Labs, please let us know by filling out this brief form below. Our team will review your inquiry and be in touch to explore potential partnership opportunities. We look forward to working together to make a meaningful impact!
