New program will bring researchers to Harvard to advance rigorous, policy-relevant research on urban problem-solving and city leadership.

How can research help cities become better at solving problems, leading innovation, and delivering results for residents? The Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University is launching the Bloomberg Harvard Visiting Scholars Program, a new residential academic program designed to advance rigorous research on the capabilities, strategies, and approaches that enable cities and city leaders to succeed.

Visiting Scholars will spend one semester or a full academic year in residence at the Bloomberg Center for Cities, with protected time and support to advance an original research project. Scholars will join the Center’s multidisciplinary intellectual community, engaging with Harvard faculty and students, experienced practitioners, and a broader ecosystem of institutional partners built through the Center’s decade of work with cities around the world.

The program seeks research that makes meaningful contributions to both scholarship and practice. Areas of particular interest include mayoral leadership and management; conditions that enable high-performing staff and teams; organizational capabilities for innovation; evidence-based policy and the capacity required to implement it; the use of data and artificial intelligence in decision-making; and effective approaches to cross-sector collaboration.

Visiting Scholars will focus primarily on their research while also contributing to the intellectual life of the Center through research seminars, student study groups, and events for the broader Harvard community.

“Some of the most important questions about cities are not only about which policies work, but about what it takes for local governments to turn good ideas into results,” said Jorrit de Jong, Director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University. “The Bloomberg Harvard Visiting Scholars Program will give researchers the time, community, and connections to investigate those questions deeply. By bringing rigorous scholarship into closer conversation with the experience of city leaders and practitioners, we hope to build a stronger body of knowledge about how cities solve problems.”

This new program builds on the Bloomberg Center for Cities’ broader investment in strengthening the study and practice of city leadership, including over a decade of work with mayors and municipal leaders through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative—expanding the ways it connects researchers with the questions, practitioners, and real-world experience that can advance knowledge about how local governments work.

This is the inaugural year of the Bloomberg Harvard Visiting Scholars Program as the Center continues to build a lasting global community of scholars whose research informs the practice of urban problem-solving and city leadership.

Applications are now open. Learn more and apply by October 28th here.

About the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University

The Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University advances research, leadership development, and cross-sector collaboration to improve the practice of city governance. Through partnerships with city leaders, applied research initiatives, student engagement, and global convenings, the Center works to strengthen local government and expand opportunity in cities around the world.

Media Contact:
Jessicah Pierre, Senior Director of Communications and Engagement Jessicah_pierre@harvard.edu | (617) 401-1470