The City of Austin services the eleventh largest city in the USA. UT is the country’s ninth largest public university. Both organizations employ tens of thousands of people and are comprised of dozens upon dozens of unique organizational entities, each with their own culture, bureaucratic hierarchy, business needs, and way of operating. This ILA and accompanying support framework provide a single, consistent way for any City employee or UT researcher to propose ideas for research projects in any field and get the assistance needed to make those ideas a reality. According to our research, there is no other mechanism available of this size and scope to provide this level of flexible, yet resilient partnering capability between Cities and their universities in the USA. The City of Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota also enable municipal staff and university researchers to enter into work orders for research, but the scopes are confined to certain projects and fields/topic areas.

This innovation is implemented, under a lens of continuous improvement. The partnership was piloted with nine AI projects funded by UT in 2019-2020. The program was then formalized in August 2020 with the City Council’s unanimous approval of the ILA. The first project under the ILA commenced in March 2020. Since then, twenty other projects with eleven unique City departments have entered the portfolio. As we near the end of the second year, we’ve obligated over three million dollars dedicated to research to benefit the City and our communities. Bi-annual reports are given to the City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee. An online resource with data dashboards is provided to the public. Each project team completes a close-out report with lessons learned and insights into program improvement. COA and UT partner to deliver at least two educational/ promotional events per year and have published comprehensive standard operating procedures for both support staff and end users.

Because this innovation is a fundamental change to how the City and UT legally interact, we had to necessarily partner closely with both organizations’ executive management and legal and purchasing teams. UT’s Office of Sponsored Programs and VP of Research were critical in identifying their unique requirements and constraints as we spent close to a year examining, normalizing, and streamlining all our policies and processes. Researchers with civic experience were also closely consulted.

Staff with pressing needs for research requiring close collaboration with local experts most immediately benefit. This innovation saves a project two to three months of time and effort. We now conduct twice the amount of research projects. Contract, legal, and administrative teams no longer create and negotiate new agreements for each project. Because most of our initiatives are focused on driving community outcomes, the intention is that our residents will ultimately see the greatest benefit.

Each project has its own success metrics by which it is measured and must complete a project close-out report. The program surveys end-users, key stakeholders, and members of our Audit and Finance committee twice a year. Four of our twenty-one projects completed on time, on budget, and realized their intended outcomes. Another eight are progressing so well that the teams have added scope, money, and/or time and amended their original agreements. On average, the ILA enables projects to go from idea to implementation four to five times faster. The overall program was so successful after its first year, that City Council unanimously approved an increase of $2.5 million dollars to the pre-approved spending limit. City departments have used the insights and recommendations from their research to create new ways to use machine learning to analyze data, improve their community-servicing programs, update strategic plans, and successfully advocate Council for additional funding and support.

City departments must have funding that can be allocated to research. This poses our most significant challenge, particularly for those with small budgets or not accustomed to the longer-term planning usually required for research. Similarly, it is difficult for departments that run a close margin to set aside funds for research months before a project might start. To address this, events and updates are tailored according to the City’s budget cycle and additional consulting services are provided. Further, timing is a challenge due to the different calendars and cadences of COA and UT. This requires a high degree of flexibility and co-creation facilitation developing scopes and schedules. Language is present in agreements that allow for simple extensions and amendments. Lastly, data protection and security are a priority for most projects, but the COA and UT worked together to develop comprehensive data security terms that govern how UT handles the COA’s confidential and sensitive data.

Once a clear vision and picture of success is established, staffing and executive support are the most critical conditions for a program like this. The success of the overall program is dependent upon the success of each project. While budgeting is a challenge, there are creative ways of securing funding or pivoting. City leadership recognized the importance of this initiative by establishing an Office of Research and Strategic Initiatives (R&SI) within the Office of Innovation, with a focus on building and maintaining meaningful relationships with key community partners. An R&SI manager is assigned to the ILA and is responsible for ensuring all components are in place to manage the portfolio, support customer departments, and maintain the relationship with UT. Additionally, the City dedicates an attorney and purchasing specialist to support the R&SI and departments in getting new agreements in place. On their side, UT also dedicates an Executive Director and team to the program.

Our approach and mechanisms were replicated by San Antonio, TX. The COA team walked them closely through our journey and provided documentation and lessons learned. The outcome was a similar interlocal agreement passed by their Mayor and Council in 2021. Additionally, the COA team consulted with New York City and Boston on their similar programs. While City-university partnerships make sense, not every jurisdiction can leverage an interlocal agreement due to differing laws. Fortunately, the Texas Government Code considers UT a governmental entity and provides clear guidelines and reasonable permission. Based largely on the success of this program, the COA launched two new initiatives. The Community Research Agenda establishes partnerships beyond academia focused on a wider range of residents and civic challenges. Because funding is a primary challenge, the Grants for Innovation program explores new, sustainable ways to secure external funding for research and innovation projects.

The primary lessons to share are around funding and equity:

• Expectations for how projects will be funded must be made explicitly clear from the very beginning. All purchasing rules, processes, and deadlines must be available through documentation and consultation. That does not address, however, the lack of funds many departments experience. Ideally, the City should establish a fund with reserves specifically for projects with the greatest needs.
• The vision of the COA is to make Austin the most livable city for all. To achieve that vision, every initiative must be examined through an equity lens. Unfortunately, research proposals don’t always consider the consequences - both intended and unintended. To help remedy this, teams should prioritize the inclusion of those affected, bring intentional attention to system inequities, advance opportunities for the improvement of outcomes for historically marginalized communities, and affirm a commitment to broad, meaningful participation.