The Obama administration announced a $160 million “Smart Cities” Initiative that will put federal research and more than 25 new tech-centric collaborations to work helping cities tackle some of their most challenging problems regarding everything from resilience to public safety and transportation. One of the initiative’s programs is the MetroLab Network, aimed at improving American cities through university-city partnerships.
A $1 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (which also provides funding support to Next City) will help launch the MetroLab Network, which will see more than 20 city-university partnerships working on 60 Smart City projects. The University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, in Philadelphia, and Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, in Atlanta, are four of the universities on board.
