BDA joins with top universities to study infrastructure challenges

The Bond Dealers of America is partnering with a group of prominent universities to tackle some of the country’s top infrastructure challenges.

“The ultimate goal in this process is to have this alliance of universities plus the BDA be a thought leader on innovative solutions to the country’s infrastructure challenges, and the challenges around the financing and delivery of that infrastructure,” said Mike Nicholas, the BDA’s CEO.  

The alliance, called Innovations in Infrastructure, will offer twice-annual conferences, with the first one set for April 27 at the University of Chicago, one of the four participating universities.

The other partners are the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and the University of North Carolina’s School of Government.

A fifth university based on the West Coast is expected to join the alliance later this year, Nicholas said.

“We’re picking different regions of the country because the infrastructure challenges in the Midwest are different from ones in the northeast and the southwest and the West Coast,” he said.

The conferences, which will be held in the spring and fall, will include underwriters who are BDA members, Nicholas said. The conferences will include a mix of academics, public officials, private equity, legal and asset management professionals in addition to the public finance players, and will feature a separate public finance leadership roundtable.

The alliance comes as federal money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues to flow into the states and cities who finance most projects. The partnership will focus on all sectors, many of which are in line for major federal support, including climate-related projects, energy, roads and bridges, electric vehicle charging stations and broadband.

“We are honored to host the first conference to be part of this alliance of leading research universities that will help develop evidence-based solutions to our country’s infrastructure needs from coast to coast,” said Christopher Berry, Director of the Center for Municipal Finance, The University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, in a press release announcing the new alliance.

The BDA in December held a similar event with Drexel University that focused on innovative solutions to challenges in transportation and energy sectors, Nicholas said. “It was a really successful combination of industry professionals, academics, public officials and private industry professionals and students,” he said. “The idea is to take that and make it nationwide and more comprehensive and thus more impactful.”