Harvard Launches ‘Impact Labs’ To Fund Social Scientists Who Partner With Outside Organizations

Harvard will pilot a program — Harvard Impact Labs — to fund collaboration between social scientists and leaders in the public and private sectors, the University announced Wednesday morning.

The initiative, which will be housed at the Harvard Kennedy School, is modeled off a similar program at Stanford University. Stanford’s Impact Labs program was launched by current Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein in 2018 while he taught at Stanford — and Harvard developed its own version in close collaboration with Weinstein, before he moved to Harvard.

Harvard Impact Labs will be co-directed by two HKS professors — Danielle Allen, director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, and Jeffrey Liebman, director of the Government Performance Lab — as well as Economics professor Amanda Pallais and James S. Kim, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The initiative aims to provide the infrastructure for social sciences faculty to realize the tangible effects of their scholarship — mimicking the pipeline that currently exists in biological and life sciences fields.

“It’s been a long process that really arose organically out of faculty who were collectively impatient to find ways for us to make more progress on society’s biggest challenges,” Liebman said.

“There is a hunger among faculty members to combine rigorous scholarship with impact for the public good,” Allen added.

There are three components of the program, designed for faculty at different stages in their scholarship. A 10-month fellowship offers coaching and workshop sessions for faculty to build out a nascent idea. The lab will also provide two to three start-up funding grants of $500,000 for faculty who already have an idea and team in mind. The lab will also fund public service sabbaticals to give faculty firsthand experience at governments or nonprofits.

The launch of Harvard’s spin-off allows Weinstein — still just under nine months into his deanship — to import one of his signature Stanford initiatives to HKS.

Liebman said the idea for Harvard Impact Labs predated Weinstein’s appointment as dean, originating four years ago in conversations with social sciences professors who wanted avenues to engage in applied research.

But Liebman said he and Allen quickly connected with Weinstein, who was then working with various universities to expand Stanford’s model. Liebman visited Stanford twice while Weinstein was there.

“We were making lots of progress,” Liebman said. “But it certainly was a nice surprise, as we were getting ready to launch this, to have one of our key thought partners suddenly here, and in a role as a dean.”

The program’s launch coincides with Harvard’s push to demonstrate its public value as University leaders confront hostility to elite higher education, both among voters and in Washington. As the Trump administration puts federal research grants in limbo, Harvard has gone into overdrive to argue that its scientific research provides essential knowledge to society.

“In this moment of dissatisfaction with the status quo, declining faith in expertise, and skepticism of government and democracy, there has never been a more important time for an initiative like this,” Weinstein said in a press release.

Allen also said the launch of the Labs came at “an important opportunity moment” for Harvard, speaking to a disconnect between the work of scholars and public perception.

“We need a new social contract with the broad public,” Allen said. “Being able to communicate how we work and how we work well in partnership with practitioners in a variety of contexts is a part of achieving that.”

The two-year pilot program is funded by Julian C. Baker ’88, a member of the Kennedy School Dean’s Executive Board — a group of prominent donors who advise the school’s dean — and the co-founder of Baker Brother Advisors, a multibillion dollar hedge fund known for making lucrative investments in biotechnology companies.

But Baker’s funding may not extend past when the two years are up, leaving the long-term future of the program uncertain.

“In this particular contemporary environment, there is always concern about funding,” Allen said. “We’ll just say that.”

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.