About

Applied Research for Change (ARCx) is André Corrêa d’Almeida’s platform for his research, teaching, consultancy, policy advising and entrepreneurial work in the field of international development.

He is a development scholar and practitioner with multiple appointments at Columbia University, former Senior Advisor to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for program evaluation, Principal Investigator at the Catholic University of Portugal and President and Founder of ARCx.

André Corrêa d’Almeida, Ph.D., M.Sc., is the Assistant Director and Adjunct Associate Professor for the School of International and Public Affairs’ and the Earth Institute’s Master of Public Administration in Development Practice, Columbia University. He has twenty years of entrepreneurial, management, academic, and leadership experience with applied multidisciplinary programs, teaching, research and consultancy carried out in the U.S., Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and China. He is the scientific coordinator and editor of the volumes “Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate” (Columbia University Press) and “Institutional Reform in Portugal” (Principia, 2019). He has received multiple research awards and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and The Guardian. He has secured multiple grants to fund applied research and training programs in the field of sustainable development.

Our Work

ARCx works on some of the most pressing problems in international and sustainable development and applies principles of development practice across research, education, policy and entrepreneurship to address them. ARCx has a strong focus on problem solving and applies scientific, collaborative and results-based methodologies to foster institutional and technological innovation. ARCx works across three major critical domains:

• Smart(er) Cities: an applied research initiative that examines (i) how innovation from within city governments is making urban systems smarter and shaping people’s lives, (ii) how city agencies have been adapting to and adopting new data and technology innovations to make their management systems more inclusive and responsive to decision making and citizens, (iii) successes, failures and replicability of innovations, (iv) opportunities for civic engagement, and, particularly critical, (v) opportunities for public-private dialogues and partnerships to accelerate innovation. Current initiatives include single-city project with New York City (U.S.) and cities-cluster project with Lisbon and Cascais (Portugal). The initiative is being expanded to the UK and China.
• Institutional Innovation: a research and multi-stakeholder dialogues initiative to help reform political institutions. The focus is on developing applied studies to inform mediation around institutional problems and solutions that require consensus and coordinated action. Current projects focus on the U.S., Portugal, Mozambique and Jordan.
• Capacity Development: an educational initiative to train the next generation of development practitioners both in the U.S. and abroad. The focus is on training to become a specialist in the design and implementation of development programs and policies within the Sustainable Development Goals framework (SDGs). Current programs focus on the U.S., China and Kazakhstan.