Municipalities and community-based organizations can learn how to partner with MetroBridge below. To join our mailing list and receive requests for proposals via email, click here.

BU Faculty interested in teaching a MetroBridge course should contact David Gross, MetroBridge Program Manager, at davgross@bu.edu.

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Overview

MetroBridge embeds the research questions and needs of municipalities and community organizations into existing courses at BU, enlisting our students and faculty as allies in addressing urban issues. We collaborate with partners to identify the research gaps where our students are best positioned to make a meaningful impact, and then work with our faculty to develop projects that yield mutually beneficial outcomes for both our students and external partners. Projects may include case studies, literature reviews, qualitative or quantitative analyses, research design, program evaluation, and other types of research.

The MetroBridge team serves as a one-stop shop and point of contact for project partners, supporting the project from submission to completion. We assist with project scoping and development, matching courses for each project, providing project management support, and ensuring effective communication between Boston University and project liaisons. At the end of each semester, students present their work to the partner, and the MetroBridge team coordinates the development of final deliverables, which may include a report, a memo, slides, and/or other deliverables specific to the project.

View a selection of recent MetroBridge projects here.

Submit a Project Proposal

We invite local governments and community-based organizations to submit project proposals for upcoming semesters based on their research and project needs.

If you have multiple, distinct project proposals, we ask that you please submit separately for each request.

A member of our team will contact you after your submission. We strive to match each project idea with a suitable course; however, if we are unable to do so for the upcoming semester, your project proposal will also be considered for future semesters.

Submit a Project Proposal

Project Proposal Submission Deadlines

We accept project proposal submissions throughout the year on a rolling basis, and submissions are welcome at any time. However, during our recruitment periods we strongly recommend that prospective partners adhere to the project submission deadlines below. Submitting a project idea as soon as possible helps us find a more suitable course match for your research and project needs.

Fall 2026 Semester

  • Priority Consideration: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
    • For engineering projects: This date is the recommended deadline. 
  • Recommended Deadline: Tuesday, June 30, 2026
    • Projects are considered on a rolling basis after April 29. Submitting in May or early June increases the likelihood we can embed your project into a course.
    • Missed this deadline? Submit a project proposal as soon as possible. Please do not wait for the late consideration deadline below.
    • For engineering projects: This is the approximate late consideration of projects deadline. 
  • Late Consideration of projects through Wednesday, July 22, 2026
    • This date is subject to change.
    • Missed this deadline? Contact us ASAP

Spring 2027 Semester

The spring recruitment schedule is still in development. First priority consideration will be given to projects submitted during the fall 2026 recruitment cycle above.

Submit a Project Proposal

Topics & Areas of Focus: Fall 2026

Check Out Past Projects

The MetroBridge program is university-wide, allowing us to leverage Boston University’s academic expertise across a wide range of topics to address the questions facing our government and community partners.

Below you will find our current areas of focus. This list will grow for the fall 2026 and spring 2027 semester, so please check back often. In addition, we frequently accept and match projects address urban needs outside of our focus areas, so please feel free to submit projects outside of these focus areas. You can also contact us if you have any questions.

  • Education policy, or policies affecting youth in schools
    • School board or school committee members are great partners for these projects
    • In 2025, students conducted an analysis of data privacy laws with respect to minors, with an emphasis on data sharing involving interactions with law enforcement.
    • Projects can be specific to education policy or school policy, or they can be involve policies that affect youth in schools directly or indirectly.
  • Engineering / Mechanical Engineering
    • 2025 projects included a cooling solution for an interior data closet and a cleaner/sweeper device for an outdoor plaza with specific requirements.
    • Engineering students have also built a solar-powered water heater, see coverage here.
    • Any project with engineering needs, such as prototype development or even white papers are suitable.
    • Note, these projects have earlier deadlines. We recommend submitting by the end of April or early May if possible. Late consideration of projects is possible through the end of June, but earlier greatly increases the odds of acceptance.
  • Governance, planning, public administration, and strategy
    • Including:
      • Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
      • Developing internal or external policy implementation plans
      • Developing internal or external policy follow-up plans
      • Analyzing root causes of issues faced by departments and public sector agencies
      • Process improvement
  • Health Policy
  • Housing Policy and inequality
    • see urban inequality below. 
  • Policy Analysis, Policy Case Studies
    • for any urban policy
    • Past projects have included:
      • an audit of the nightlife economy in Nubian Square, with recommendations for policies to improve nightlife
      • an analysis of MBTA bus stop quality and amenities in Boston
      • an analysis of parking and curbside management programs, as well as policies to reduce car ownership
      • an analysis of behavior regarding littering and using of the Mass Save program
  • Program/Project/Service/Amenity Evaluation
    • In 2025, students developed an objective and informed survey instrument that the Town of Easton can use to gain input from community members on existing parks and recreation assets as well as desires for the future.
    • This course is an excellent fit for the development of research or evaluation tools for cities and towns.
  • Public Sector Economics
    • In 2025, students conducted comparative fiscal studies of transit agencies in the United States examining their financial outlook and measures taken to address fiscal constraints, in order to provide greater insight to the MBTA Advisory Board.
    • Projects for this course should have easily accessible data, as students will have limited time for data collection.
  • Urban Inequality, including housing inequality
    • This course is a fantastic fit for projects covering a wide range of housing issues related to inequality (projects do not need to involve housing, but most do).
    • In 2025, students researched barriers to accessing safe and affordable housing among for sub-populations for the City of Boston.
    • In 2024, students conducted research regarding the approaches, debate, and advocacy in local implementation of required MBTA Communities zoning changes
    • In 2022, students researched best practices to enhance equitable public participation in alignment with Framingham’s Racial Equity Vision
  • Any other urban research need not listed above!
    • If your project does not fall under one of the above areas, we still encourage you to submit! We frequently embed projects outside of our focus areas into additional courses.

Please note that the above list is not a comprehensive list of possible project topics & focus areas. This list will change as projects are matched and as we continue to hold conversations with our faculty network.

Project Timeline

For project submission deadlines, please refer to Submit a Project Proposal.

  • The Fall Semester runs from September until December break. A student-led presentation is typically held in December, with final deliverables completed in December or January.
  • The Spring Semester runs from late January until late April or early May. A student-led presentation is typically held in April or May, with final deliverables completed in May.
  • In limited instances, projects span both semesters (Fall and Spring), lasting a total of nine months. These projects begin at the start of the fall semester (September) and conclude at the end of the spring semester (April or May). At this time, these projects are limited to mechanical engineering and city planning.

If a project is large in scope, we may collaborate with partners and faculty to divide it across multiple semesters. These may be taken in back-to-back semesters (e.g., Fall 2025 and Spring 2026) or consecutively over two years (e.g., Fall 2025 and Fall 2026).

Partner Requirements

Local governments and organizations serving as MetroBridge partners should be prepared to donate their time, in addition to sharing data and reports relevant to the project(s). However, we work to ensure the time commitment is not onerous by dedicating the time of one staff member at the IOC to facilitating these partnerships. Please note that the MetroBridge team is your main point of contact supporting the project from idea submission to project completion and project deliverables development, and acts as the liaison between Boston University and partners. Project partners may be expected to:

    • Attend planning and check-in meetings with MetroBridge program staff, faculty, and occasionally with students.
    • Visit the class on campus at the beginning of the semester to provide an overview of the project and the city or town, or host the students at a relevant space in your city or town or organization.
    • Attend the final presentation (depending on class time and partner location, this may be on campus or at the partner’s offices).
    • Host a student site visit (if applicable, depending on class time and partner location).
  • Coordinate meetings with key local government staff and community partners (if applicable; MetroBridge may also assist with such tasks).
  • Provide information such as existing reports, plans, or data related to the project, as well as meeting minutes with pertinent agenda items (if applicable).

Stay in Touch / Contact Us

If you have any questions about the program, want to learn more, or have research needs you’d like to discuss before submitting a proposal above, please reach out to our Program Manager, David Gross.

To receive email updates from MetroBridge regarding calls for project ideas and faculty course matching, please click here to sign up for our email list.