The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) grants a number of fellowships each year through the Urban and Regional Policy program. Urban and Regional Policy fellowships, jointly supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Bank of America Foundation, are intended to provide opportunities for practitioners and policy-makers working on economic and social issues at the urban and regional policy levels to meet with their counterparts across the Atlantic and discuss policies and measures that have been implemented.  Fellows can then return from their time overseas equipped with the ideas and insights necessary to effect significant and lasting positive change in their own communities.

Organized by GMF in cooperation with Cleveland State University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University the SC2 Fellowship provides pilot cities with a class of highly-skilled fellows who are committed to public service, and who will become the next generation of leaders. It trains and place highly motivated, mid-career professionals in local government agencies for a two-year fellowship period in seven pilot cities: Chester, PA; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; New Orleans, LA; Cleveland, OH and Youngstown, OH. The fellowship program, supported by a gift from the Rockefeller Foundation, is one component of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Initiative, a federal interagency pilot initiative that aims to strengthen neighborhoods, cities, and regions by enhancing the capacity of local governments to develop and execute economic visions and strategies.

The Cities in Transition Initiative is a three-year project designed to build a sustained network of leading policymakers and practitioners in five older industrial U.S. cities: Detroit and Flint, Michigan; Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio; and the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region. Through three annual study tours supplemented by series of working meetings and policy workshops, participants in this network work together closely to articulate critical policy challenges facing their communities and to identify ways to adapt innovative solutions that European older industrial cities have implemented to address the myriad challenges associated with urban disinvestment and economic restructuring. In each of its three years, the project will zero in on a different policy area affecting these cities.

The Transatlantic Cities Network (TCN), an ongoing project founded in September 2008, provides a framework for sustained exchange of information about innovative policies, best practices, and local policy challenges among a diverse network of policymakers, practitioners, and civic leaders who are well-positioned to put new ideas into practice in their home cities. The TCN currently includes representatives from twenty-three cities in the United States and Europe. Cities are selected to participate in the TCN by the Urban and Regional Policy program in conjunction with an expert Advisory Committee, based on cities’ potential to share innovative policy solutions in certain key policy areas, as well as to benefit from the experiences of other cities in different policy areas.

Dialogues for Change is a joint initiative with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the German Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development, and German Federal Institute for Research on Building Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).  Its purpose is to build and support a network of practitioners and policymakers in the US and Germany that engages in a dialogue around civic engagement best practices, challenges, and opportunities. 

Re-Imagining Detroit: The Detroit-Torino Partnership is a 3-year initiative designed to expose leaders from the city of Detroit to the lessons learned from Torino, Italy’s economic rebirth and industrial renaissance over the past three decades. Like Detroit today, Torino suffered from a severe collapse of its auto industry, which had dominated the city’s economy since the end of World War II. After years of economic and political upheaval, Torino successfully diversified its industrial and manufacturing base, charting a new course toward an identity as a thriving international city and culminating in a successful bid to host the 2006 Winter Olympics.