About

The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) is a University-wide resource housed at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. CLOSUP is an information resource for policymakers and practitioners, academics, students, the media, and the public. The Center works to foster effective communication between academic researchers, stakeholders, and the policymakers dealing with today's state, local, and urban policy problems.

Since its founding in 2001, the Center has been home to research initiatives on a range of policy issues including energy and the environment, education, fiscal health, redistricting, governance, and more. One of the Center's core programs is the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), launched in 2009 as the nation's only ongoing census-style survey of every unit of general purpose local government across an entire state.

CLOSUP sponsors research conferences, seminars, workshops, and other events on topical policy issues. These events help integrate University of Michigan researchers and students with policymakers and practitioners, in part to help inform research with perspectives from the field, and in part to help inform policymaking with the latest knowledge from academic research.

The center also facilitates student engagement with today’s critical policy issues through its CLOSUP in the Classroom Initiative, integrating Ford School students as policy analysts in the center's research activities, bringing the center's findings into the classroom, and supporting student collaborations with organizations focused on state and local policy.

To hear about upcoming events, our latest research, and more, sign up to join our email list, visit or follow us on Twitter @CLOSUP, or call us at 734-647-4091