City of Austin, University of Texas Formalize Research Partnership

AUSTIN, TX – On August 27, Austin City Council unanimously approved a five-year interlocal agreement (ILA) between the City of Austin and The University of Texas at Austin that will streamline and coordinate research efforts between the two organizations, ultimately saving time, money, and allowing staff to more easily meet the needs of City residents.

Prior to the adoption of the ILA, the process to identify research partners and secure funding was time-consuming and decentralized.

Now, the ILA streamlines city research projects by establishing pre-negotiated terms and conditions, removing administrative barriers, and pre-approving $7.5 million for research, consulting and technical assistance from UT faculty and researchers.

The agreement allows the City to commission research with the UT without approval from the Council on each individual project.

By streamlining the process, Mayor Steve Adler said the agreement will help the City “better serve as a laboratory for the University of Texas faculty.”

“With the university as a partner, the City has a powerful resource for addressing our most challenging civic issues. The ILA is the right move to set the City up for long-term success in collaborative research and data-driven decision making,” said Mayor Adler.

Research partnerships between the City and UT create opportunities across academic disciplines to address complex civic challenges, such as affordable housing and mobility.

While UT and the City have often partnered on projects, such as gentrification research or the “downtown puzzle,” there had not been a streamlined process for connecting researchers to city project managers until now.

“UT and the City of Austin have many shared goals,” said UT Deputy Vice President for Research Jennifer Lyon Gardner. “We wish to showcase the City of Austin as a vibrant and innovative community that is incorporating the latest, best available knowledge to address issues facing all major metropolitan areas. The new ILA facilitates much more rapid collaboration between UT experts and City staff, while collecting tracking information and progress on these collaborations in one location, which should help to ensure closer coordination across projects to improve accountability and to reduce duplicative efforts and costs.”

City staffers from the Communications and Technology Management division coordinated the efforts to establish the ILA after noting the administrative hurdles impeding City work and making the case for a stronger more formalized partnership.

“A master agreement makes it possible to do the work and to do the work in a timely manner,” said Charles Purma, the City of Austin IT Manager who, along with Ted Lehr, a City of Austin data architect, spearheaded the effort. “Our team saw the duplicative efforts of standing up individual agreements and took on the challenge of streamlining the work across both organizations. The ILA eases administrative burdens significantly, allowing our teams to quickly execute strategic partnerships and get to work serving Austin residents.”