Ready, Set, Policy!

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, governments are rethinking how to partner with tech companies to drive public value. This Policy Sprint challenged students to tackle that question head-on: how can strategic partnerships between tech and government be built, and built to last?

Through an intensive two-day simulation, master's students stepped into the role of policy strategists, identifying real-world opportunities, anticipating roadblocks, and crafting scalable approaches to collaboration in the public interest.

As the Trump administration sought to reshape its approach to Iran, the Mitvim Institute, alongside leading think tanks, was tasked with a critical mission: to help the Office of the National Security Adviser design a new strategy. Their work would go on to shape policy recommendations with far-reaching regional and global consequences.

The students' mission: to step into the shoes of policy advisers and explore what a viable U.S. strategy toward a nuclear-ready Iran could look like—balancing diplomacy, deterrence, and global stability.

In the context of war, a cost-of-living crisis and migration movements, climate change seems to have dropped in salience on people’s lists of priorities in most polls conducted in Europe. Many leading politicians of the centre-right and centre-left across the continent have reacted by either scaling back climate action or deemphasising it rhetorically at least. But is this really necessary? Should politicians be worried about voters abandoning them because they engage strongly with the climate crisis? Could it even be counter-productive to de-emphasise now?

In this Policy Sprint, we will critically engage with the cautious approach taken by so many political leaders across many EU countries. We will work on the design of research strategies that would enable us to develop such understandings, both regarding public input and output-legitimacy concerns. We will critically examine existing public attitudes work and propose improved and alternative agendas. Using real-life examples and case studies provided by the instructor, students will gain a deep understanding of how public attitudes work is used (well and poorly) in political decision-making and how meaningful approaches can be developed.

Designed and offered as part of the Hertie School Policy Lab and taught by Monika Weber-Fahr, this Sprint provides an intensive, hands-on opportunity for master's students to explore the approaches and dynamics of building strategies for civil society organisations that take on large and evolving public policy mandates. The course focuses on the real-life challenge faced by ISEAL - the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance, a UK-based but globally operating membership organisation, that is the leading advocate for sustainability standards organisations to build a new strategy.

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