Understanding the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard

25 Aug 2022

Understanding the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard

Conducting and disseminating research in a digital-first world

Topics: Innovation-Technological Innovation Change-Transformation Research-Research and Development Information-Data and Data Sets Technology-Artificial Intelligence

Illustrations by Don Foley

To expand faculty research on how technological change is affecting business and society and to help reinvent this change, HBS launched in July the Digital, Data, and Design Institute at Harvard (D^3). It focuses on the opportunities and challenges of digitalization, which senior executives identify as one of their top priorities, along with climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

REINVENTING
THE FUTURE
OF BUSINESS

READ MORE STORIES

Based at HBS, the Institute offers a new model of exploration that leverages the School’s strengths and resources. It encompasses rigorous research, immersive learning, and cutting-edge practical applications that arise from cross-disciplinary partner-ships within the Harvard community and with leaders—many of whom are HBS alumni— and organizations undergoing digital transformation.

The structure of the Institute encompasses research programs and embedded labs driving foundational and applied research on topics critical to business; engagement platforms that catalyze connections among faculty members, companies, practitioners, and ideas outside of HBS; and a core that provides key data and administrative services.

Research Programs and Labs

Six research programs addressing today’s key business and societal challenges anchor the Institute. Within each program are labs focusing on a specific area of research that informs new course and content creation and is translated into practice. In 2022, 12 labs have launched, each of which is led by faculty members (principal investigators) who are supported by a team of scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students from across Harvard to provide leverage and scale.

Platforms

To ensure that the impact of its research labs is broad, the Institute has built four common platforms for external engagement that will enable rapid innovation and continual refinements as information flows between the labs and platforms.

Core

The two core units support the Institute, providing data-specific research design and software engineering capabilities to enable faculty research, and administrative services to launch and run labs efficiently and to coordinate relationships with external partners.