BARI emerged from discussions between Founding Directors Robert J. Sampson and Christopher Winship, both professors of sociology at Harvard University, and city officials and civic leaders about how the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University could support scholarly, policy-relevant, Boston-focused research. Following a successful conference on city-university partnerships in October 2011, which was attended by 450+ people, Radcliffe’s Academic Ventures program (under the leadership of Rebecca Wassarman) launched BARI in 2012 in collaboration with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston (thanks to the partnership of then-Executive Director David Luberoff) and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (thanks to support from Director Gary King). Nancy E. Hill, a professor of developmental psychology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education also joined the original leadership team at this time. In 2016, BARI moved its administrative home to Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and became a joint venture of Northeastern & Harvard Universities. Current Director Dan O’Brien was originally BARI’s Research Director, adopting the role of Co-Director in 2016 and Director in 2018.