Project Partners come with some idea of a problem they want help in tackling, data they can provide to solve that problem, and resources they can devote to collaborate with us over the summer. Ideal partners:
1. Have an important problem with high social impact: We want concrete problems that can have impact as opposed to vague research questions
2. Can give us access to data they’ve collected that is useful in solving that problem: It’s less about the size of the data, more about having the right data to solve the problem. We don’t release the data publicly and comply with any security and privacy procedures necessary but we need to be able to access the data remotely from Chicago.
3. Provide expertise about the problem area to the team of Fellows: We are not experts in all “social good” areas and expect partners (who are the experts) to help us understand the data and the problem.
4. Are likely to implement and use the work we produce over the summer: We want our work to be used and having committed partners is critical for that to happen.
We want to make an impact and want to work with partners who can best use our skills and resources to make that happen.
More questions? See our post on what makes a good DSSG project.