La Follette School of Public Affairs
Inspiring evidence-based policymaking

Submit a proposal

Public, private, and nonprofit organizations partner with our students to address real‑world challenges.

Working closely with clients, student-consultant teams produce high-quality, evidence-based reports that can inform legislative agendas, assess program funding, support programmatic improvements, or determine areas of future focus. Students analyze existing data, search for data and information in the research literature, and collect information through interviews with experts. These partnerships provide students with practical experience and offer clients valuable deliverables.

There is no cost to clients, but the organization must have a dedicated point person with the capacity to be responsive to the student team throughout the semester. Our staff can work with you to determine which student effort is best suited to your needs.

On this page

“Seeing our hard work go on to influence policy and hopefully improve lives is inspiring for me and my teammates. All the time we spent researching and analyzing data finally ended up on the table of legislators to help improve the lives of so many."

Hamsa Farah, Health Policy Certificate student

Types of projects

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)

Timing

Clients submit proposals in the spring; students work on projects each fall.

Deliverable

Clients receive a cost-benefit analysis of proposed policy alternatives and supporting documentation, along with recommendations for additional studies or next steps, if appropriate.

Best suited for

Projects requiring a pure cost-benefit analysis to determine the least-cost or highest-cost alternative among identified policy options.

Read cost-benefit analysis reports

Public policy workshops

Timing

Clients submit proposals in the spring; students work on projects each fall.

Deliverable

Clients receive a final report with policy recommendations and supporting documentation, along with recommendations for additional studies or next steps, if appropriate.

Best suited for

Program evaluations, policy analyses, literature reviews, and comparative analyses that have a sufficient amount of existing data to inform the research.

Read about workshop reports

Capstone policy project

Timing

Clients submit proposals in the fall; students work on projects each spring.

Deliverable

Clients receive a final report with policy recommendations and supporting documentation, along with recommendations for additional studies or next steps, if appropriate.

Best suited for

Program evaluations, policy analyses, literature reviews, and comparative analyses that have a sufficient amount of existing data to inform the research.

Read capstone reports

Is my project a good fit?

What makes a good project?

  • Clearly stated problem, challenge, or opportunity and clearly defined deliverables that can be accomplished in approximately 14 weeks
  • Dedicated point person with capacity to respond to the student team (time commitment of point person is approximately 4-6 hours during weeks 1-4, 10-12 hours during weeks 5-10, and 6-8 hours during weeks 11-14)
  • Available data and/or documentation
  • Support of organizational leadership
  • Openness to unexpected analysis results
  • Interest in sharing results with policymakers and public

Questions teams helped answer

“I was really impressed by the students’ professionalism, engagement and follow-up. The value of this product was extraordinary and has been shared with public safety leadership and the mayor’s office.”

Ryan Zollicoffer, Emergency Management Director, City of Milwaukee

Project proposals

Let us know about your project idea and organization by submitting a project proposal. We are now accepting applications for cost-benefit analysis and public policy workshop projects. The deadline to submit is May 15, 2026.

First-time applicants are encouraged to contact outreach@lafollette.wisc.edu before submitting project proposals to determine if the project scope and focus is a good fit for our courses.

Submit a CBA proposal

Submit a workshop proposal

Selection and timeline

This is a competitive recruitment process. Our faculty select projects based on several criteria including student interest; clearly stated problem, challenge, or opportunity; and clearly defined deliverables.

  • May 15: Deadline for proposals
  • Early June: Clients notified of proposal status
  • Early September: Client intake meeting with faculty advisor
  • September: Initial meeting with organization and student team members
  • September-December: Client works with student-consultant team
  • December 2026-January 2027: Final presentation to organization and promotion of reports to policymakers and public

Contact

Interested in working with our students? We welcome project proposals from public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations. Contact us with any questions or to determine if your project is a good fit for our courses.

Email: outreach@lafollette.wisc.edu.