Drawing on a new study, Harvard researchers discussed insights regarding the design and management of cross-sector collaborations focused on solving urban problems.

Cambridge, Massachusetts (October 10, 2025)—City leaders, scholars, fellows, and students gathered at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University on September 30 to discuss research on the promise and challenges of cross-sector collaboration. A new study supported by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and published in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART) examined nine cross-sector collaborations across three cities and three policy areas: education, public safety, and economic development.

Mixed results in collaborations

“The hardest problems that communities face, from creating economic and educational opportunity to ensuring public safety, require the knowledge, skills, and resources of multiple sectors, including government, business, and nonprofits,” said the study’s lead author, Santiago Pulido-Gómez, a Research Fellow at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School graduate, and Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Despite how common these collaborations are, cross-sector efforts in cities vary dramatically in how effective they are. In this study, we asked ourselves what helps and what hinders the design and management of cross-sector collaboration in cities.”

Collaboration as Learning Journey

The panel discussion, which included study co-authors Jorrit de Jong of Harvard Kennedy School and Jan Rivkin of Harvard Business School and was moderated by Kimberlyn Leary of Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, highlighted that setbacks are inevitable, whether by loss of funding, shifts in political support, or other disagreement and misalignment between collaborators. Rather than hoping collaborations won’t experience setbacks, it’s helpful to discuss how the team will handle problems before they happen.

Panelists shared real-world examples where trust and adaptability determined the trajectory of city partnerships. Some collaborations that began with great promise stumbled when setbacks led to finger-pointing. Others turned strain into a chance to learn and adapt, strengthening the partnership in the process.

Making Collaborations Work

The online and in-person audience raised questions about practical skills leaders must cultivate, such as trust-building and conflict resolution, and how to create structures that withstand turnover, shifting political winds, and resource constraints. The researchers shared five factors that contribute to effective collaboration: 1) building on prior working relationships, 2) relying on a trusted individual who can build bridges, 3) engaging the community throughout the collaboration, 4) making sense of data and evidence together, and 5) deliberately investing in joint problem-solving capacity.

The study suggests that successful cross-sector collaboration is not defined by avoiding problems, but by how leaders and partners anticipate and respond to them. Emerging from this work are both caution and encouragement: setbacks are inevitable, but so is the possibility of building collaborations into more durable mechanisms for problem-solving in cities.