Addressing today’s global, interconnected challenges—and reaping the opportunities—takes rigorous, cross-disciplinary inquiry with research partners across campus and around the world. In addition to our 15 research centers and numerous affiliated centers that serve as catalysts for research and engagement with the policy community around the world, Harris supports numerous other partnerships and initiatives.

Campus Partners and Initiatives

Our faculty address society’s most complex challenges across a wide range of policy areas through interdisciplinary research with scholars from across the University of Chicago. Our campus partners include Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago Booth, the School of Social Service Administration, the University of Chicago Law School,  UChicago Urban Labs, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as well as a number of affiliated centers. Harris also directs a number of its own centers and research initiatives. Harris-led initiatives include:

Policy Analytics Initiative

The Policy Analytics Initiative promotes data-informed policy decision-making and aims to accelerate the use of data analytics in public policy. As advances in data science allow for near-real-time gathering and processing of information that can improve public decision-making and governance, research and training is needed to bridge the gaps that remain between data scientists, policy researchers, and policymakers.

Urban Policy Initiative

Harris launched the Urban Policy Initiative to better understand the determinants of urban density and its consequences. The initiative aims to organize urban policy studies already in progress at Harris, introduce new activities in concert with the diverse disciplinary resources of the University, and train students to help improve urban life as policy leaders.

National and International Partners

Harris faculty engage national and international community, nonprofit, and private sector institutions, government agencies and other research organizations, influencing questions on national health care reform, housing policy, education and job training, child and family policy, poverty and urban inequality issues.