A New Industry-Academic Initiative at IQSS

To: IQSS Community
From: Gary King, Director of IQSS
Re: A New Industry-Academic Initiative at IQSS

We are excited to announce a new IQSS initiative designed to transform academic social science research into market-ready startup ventures. The new industry-academic connections we are building will help social scientists increase the impact of their scholarship; harvest data, knowledge, and other resources from the commercial world for research; and enable the university and commercial sectors to learn from each other faster and more effectively.

As part of this effort, we are thrilled to welcome to the IQSS community the "Startup Foundry" (with a new name to be chosen soon!), which we have just moved from its previous home at the Harvard Business School; its director and newest IQSS team member, Debi Kleiman; and especially the generous support from our visionary contributors, Kelly and Carla Kimball.

To join other faculty founders exploring the creation of new ventures and other types of industry collaboration, please contact Debi. 

Social Science Startups

Although numerous faculty in the natural sciences create commercial startups, very few social science faculty have taken advantage of such opportunities. We aim to change this – and thus improve academic social science, advance industry-academic collaboration, and create substantial public good. Social science research, including behavioral science innovations, lie at the heart of some of the largest tech companies and other businesses, many of which now use our innovations and hire our students. 

The goal of social science research is to create, preserve, and disseminate knowledge about people and society. In recent decades, the quantitative social sciences have been moving from studying phenomena to solving problems, making discoveries, designing new public policies, and developing innovative methods that turn qualitative information into quantitative insights. Working closely with industry is one of the best ways of accomplishing these academic goals. Industry collaborations can unlock vast datasets, knowledge, and expertise; improve academic work; and create substantial public good. Both sectors possess complementary resources: industries and governments now hold the majority of the world's data about the people we study, while the academy develops the pathbreaking methods to analyze them. Establishing this flow of information greatly increases the potential for success on both sides.

Building on Proven Success

The Startup Foundry, which we are moving from HBS, has, in just its first year and a half, already helped stand up nine new ventures from research labs across Harvard, with five "graduating" to the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Here are a few examples: One startup received a $3M grant and joined the top startup accelerator program in San Francisco; another closed an $800K venture capital round. A third now has a multi-million dollar pipeline of hospital contracts that will increase maternal health outcomes.

IQSS also has a long history of incubating research projects that outgrow their roots. Some have become larger research projects, some external nonprofits, some centers at IQSS or at other parts of Harvard, and about a dozen have become successful companies. We hope to formalize and build on these efforts in collaboration with the Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) and other key stakeholders across the University.

Get Involved

• We are now offering support to interested faculty. If you have ideas or need advice on industry engagement, please contact Debi.
• Help us rename the initiative: Submit suggestions to Debi (dkleiman@iq.harvard.edu) by April 23rd, with prizes for the winner!
• Contact Debi if you're interested in contributing to discussions about program design or effective faculty engagement.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Gary King

Director, Institute for Quantitative Social Science
king@harvard.edu