City: Maipú, Chile

Reporting to: Director of Municipal Delivery Unit

The Challenge

With a population of 500,000, Maipú is one of Chile’s largest cities and is situated within the Santiago Metropolitan Region. The city is currently implementing Plan Maipú Ciudad 2030, a strategy to revitalize public buildings and spaces and upgrade infrastructure by 2030. The goal is to position Maipú as a national and international hub for development, while building trust, strengthening community belonging, and improving quality of life for all residents. As part of this effort, Mayor Tomás Vodanovic wants to create a systematic mechanism for the municipality to collaborate with the private sector, as well as the university and three technical education institutions located in Maipú.

Vodanovic sees great potential for cross-sector collaboration, especially when it comes to economic development, building talent pipelines for local employers, and bringing technical knowledge to municipal innovation priorities. While ad-hoc partnerships are common, Maipú lacks a consistent, shared, and strategic framework for advancing common interests. The city’s participation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative’s Innovation Track training program helped consolidate and formalize Maipú’s efforts to create a forum for strengthening their public-private-academic partnerships.

Looking ahead, the city aims to design and activate a sustainable collaboration structure capable of attracting investment, fostering innovation, supporting workforce development, and activating Maipú’s economic potential by drawing inspiration from global examples, such as Medellín’s Ruta N and New York City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

Key questions include:

• What governance model best fits Maipú’s institutional context to coordinate public, private, academic, and community actors?
• Which sectors or innovation clusters offer the greatest potential for Maipú’s economic growth?
• What lessons can Maipú draw from successful models in other cities, such as Medellín’s Ruta N, Bogotá’s creative economy initiatives, New York City’s EDC, Rotterdam’s Innovation District, or Melbourne’s Innovation District?
• What stakeholders must be involved, and what incentives or collaboration mechanisms could foster long-term participation?
• What steps should the city take over the next twelve to twenty-four months to activate the ecosystem and demonstrate early value?

What You’ll Do

The fellow will develop an evidence-based proposal to strengthen the ecosystem of public-private-academic collaboration, building the analytical foundation and strategic roadmap needed to advance this effort. They will also help to design a model tailored to Maipú’s context, aligned with global best practices, and built to benefit all residents. This will require engaging with key stakeholders in and out of City Hall. Internally, the fellow will work with the mayor’s office and city teams in charge of planning, delivery, economic development, communications, and engagement. External stakeholders include the city’s university, research centers, private businesses and investors, industry associations, civic organizations, and international partners from innovation hubs and city networks. 

Key deliverables include:

• A comprehensive assessment of Maipú’s economic and innovation ecosystem, mapping key actors, existing capacities, collaboration mechanisms, governance gaps, and economic opportunities.
• A comparative analysis of relevant international models.
• A defined governance model for the proposed ecosystem.
• A prioritized set of economic opportunities or clusters.
• A twelve-to-twenty-four-month implementation roadmap.
• A final presentation to the mayor and leadership team.

What You’ll Bring

The fellow will be expected to possess the following skills:

• Data Analysis
• Qualitative Interviewing and Analysis
• Mapping (GIS)
• Policy Analysis
• Communications
• Spanish Fluency (required)

Apply here

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