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Urban Labs will be launched with $15 million in seed funding, including a $10 million donation from the Pritzker Foundation. Building on the successful examples of the UChicago Crime Lab and Education Lab, this funding will enable the creation of three more related programs—the Health Lab, Energy and Environment Lab, and Poverty Lab. Each will be led by a distinguished UChicago faculty member. The Pritzker gift also will fund pilot projects by community groups, non-profits, or government agencies, to be selected through the Urban Labs Innovation Challenge. These projects will help propel research findings into tangible community improvements.
“The Pritzker Foundation sees philanthropic giving as an opportunity to make a difference in our community and in society. In the case of Urban Labs, we have an opportunity to do both,” said Tom Pritzker, executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corp. and chairman and CEO of The Pritzker Organization. “We are eager to support the next generation of policy innovations at the University of Chicago, which has an ideal combination of urban expertise and global reach.”
Combining perspectives across the five labs is crucial to addressing the big challenges that cities face, said Timothy Knowles, chairman of the Urban Education Institute and the John Dewey Clinical Professor in the Committee on Education, who has been appointed Pritzker Director of UChicago Urban Labs. |