The University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

The Applied Policy Project (APP) partners Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy Masters students from the University of Virginia with public policy organizations for their Master's capstone, the Applied Policy Project (APP). This program is designed for students to provide policy analysis on pressing policy challenges. Throughout this two-semester program, students commit approximately 300 hours of consulting time—around 10 hours per week—to analyzing and providing solutions to a critical policy issue identified by the partner organization. This process involves close collaboration with University of Virginia faculty from Batten, who guide students through an in-depth examination of the issue, stakeholders, potential solutions, and recommendations. The APP aims to support partners in making informed, ethical decisions about policy challenges outside their typical expertise, helping address complex policy issues across the breadth of public policy challenges. Once a match is confirmed on the platform, it will be sent to the students. Students will select which projects they would like to explore, and they will contact you to discuss if it is a good match. If you have more than one student wanting to work on your project, you are welcome to use any selection process you think is optimal, or if preferred, we can handle the selection process and recommend a student among the ones that have contacted you. In the end, you can follow our recommendation or go with your own choice.