MetroLab the “Network” — From Members to Friends

MetroLab is announcing an evolution of its membership approach, creating a “Friend of MetroLab” ecosystem of community innovators.

When MetroLab was created, a swell of energy kicked off a now almost ten year effort to strengthen partnerships between cities and universities. A convergence of innovation was happening: the notion of a “smart city,” understanding the power of open data, and bringing universities into the fold as a meaningful collaborator. Living in the Office of Science Technology Policy (OSTP), then in Carnegie Mellon University, MetroLab was out to serve as a national consortium to local partners working on emerging technologies.

In 2019 when a “membership model” was announced for the first time, MetroLab was also finding its feet as a newly created non-profit organization. This included working with 30+ communities as partners to MetroLab’s core work. All of this history has informed our current efforts to best support this incredible network of researchers and local government partners. We are understanding what has worked, what hasn’t, and how to move forward.

Today we are announcing that MetroLab will no longer be a membership organization, instead opening up our ecosystem to truly recognize the larger audience that we work with that are researching or implementing innovations bringing impact to our communities.

We invite you to join our “Friend of MetroLab” ecosystem. Returning to MetroLab’s roots, we want to recognize organizations who aim to champion actionable civic research and believe in the mission of catalytic change by way of equipping local governments with science and research. There is absolutely no fee associated with this, we simply ask you to fill out this form.

A Friend of MetroLab is an organization that we will regularly engage. We want to disseminate your work and tell the story of successful projects to other communities, and we will prioritize you as we consider partners for funded projects or opportunities of collaboration. We will also continue to host convenings and virtual programming that are important conversations for our community. You can find our FAQ document here.

In addition, MetroLab has had the great pleasure of working with incredible partners, including other non-profits, private sector innovators, and philanthropy. We are delighted to recognize our collaborators as “Partners of MetroLab,” and we look forward to continuing these partnerships.

This evolution is not possible without the support of our members from 2019 and today. Thank you for your trust and your enthusiasm in supporting MetroLab’s work.