---
id: "govlab:project/project-the-govlab-academy"
type: "GovLab project"
title: "The GovLab Academy"
url: "https://thegovlab.org/project/project-the-govlab-academy"
authors: ["Beth Simone Noveck","Anna Bialas","Claudio Mendonca","Christopher Wong","Denny Tek","Dino Cantú-Pedraza"]
summary: "How to empower civic & policy entrepreneurs to develop impactful real-word projects?"
source: "The GovLab (thegovlab.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# The GovLab Academy

How to empower civic & policy entrepreneurs to develop impactful real-word projects?

Project website: [http://govlabacademy.org](http://govlabacademy.org)

## Background

Although many schools and programs teach the skills relevant to business innovation, aspiring public and social sector innovators have very few places to turn to receive the mentoring and support needed to take a technology-driven governance innovation project across a wide range of social issues from idea to implementation. Our objective has been to focus sharply on delivering learning experiences and support that make for successful governance innovation projects.

## Description

Through coaching programs, workshops, courses and project clinics, and master classes, The GovLab Academy offers teams and individuals who are passionate about solving a public problem access to high-quality, curated content aimed at busy practitioners, mentoring designed to help take public interest projects from idea to implementation, connections to subject-matter experts, and tools for peer-to-peer learning and skill sharing.

## Results and impact

In a series of Masters-level courses and online (and offline) workshops and coaching programs funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The GovLab and its network of 25 world-class coaches and over 100 mentors helped over 1000 participants in more than a dozen US cities and thirty countries to take a public interest technology project from idea to implementation. In the process, we’ve learned a lot about the need for new ways of training the next generation of leaders and problem solvers.

## Location

- Global

## Partners

- John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

## Team

- [Beth Simone Noveck](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#beth-simone-noveck)
- [Anna Bialas](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#anna-bialas)
- [Claudio Mendonca](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#claudio-mendonca)
- [Christopher Wong](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#christopher-wong)
- [Denny Tek](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#denny-tek)
- [Dino Cantú-Pedraza](https://thegovlab.org/team.html#dinorah-cantu-pedraza)

## Additional resources

- [USDA and GovLab Academy teamed up to provide a u201cFirst of Its Kindu201d Camp for DC-Area Teens Focused Specifically on Open Data and Agriculture](http://thegovlab.org/usda-and-govlab-academy-teamed-up-to-provide-a-first-of-its-kind-camp-for-dc-area-teens-focused-specifically-on-open-data-and-agriculture/)
- [Behind the Scenes: The #RedHeartHacker Discusses the GovLab Academy](http://thegovlab.org/the-govlab-academy-a-students-perspective/)
- [GovLab Academy Coaching Programs Updates!](http://thegovlab.org/govlab-academy-coaching-programs-updates/)
- [Intellibins LLC Announces Launch of Private Beta Mobile App](http://thegovlab.org/intellibins-llc-announces-launch-of-private-beta-mobile-app/)
- [People-Driven Governance: Spainu2019s Podemos Party](http://thegovlab.org/people-driven-governance-spains-podemos-party/)
- [Dr. Samir K. Brahmachari on the Open Source Drug Discovery project](http://thegovlab.org/dr-samir-k-brahmachari-on-the-open-source-drug-discovery-project/)
- [From the Classroom to the Community: A Studentu2019s Journey post-Solving Public Problems Using Technology](http://thegovlab.org/from-the-classroom-to-the-community-a-students-journey-post-solving-public-problems-using-technology/)
- [Solving Public Problems With Technology](http://thegovlab.org/solving-public-problems-with-technology/)
- [Training the Next Generation of Public Problem Solvers (Report)](http://www.thegovlab.org/static/files/academy%20final%20report.pdf)
- [Training the Next Generation of Public Problem Solvers (Slide Deck)](http://www.thegovlab.org/static/files/GovLab%20Academy%20Final%20Deck.pdf)
- [Academy One Pager](http://www.thegovlab.org/static/files/academy-one-pager.pdf)
- [Ten Lessons learned](https://medium.com/@TheGovLab/training-the-next-generation-of-public-leaders-and-problem-solvers-54df25bb72af)