The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory (NCRC) is a place of shared learning, innovation, and community, focusing on the critical skills needed for better leadership, decision-making, and collaboration.
About the Collaboratory
Founded in 2016 as the successor to the Kennedy School Negotiation Project, we are working within the Harvard Kennedy School and outside of it to create new ideas on how to negotiate most effectively, convene leaders, and equip them with critical negotiation skills.
What we do
We connect students of negotiation, practitioners on the frontlines, and faculty leading cutting-edge research across disciplines.
We advance the field of experiential learning and motivate innovations in teaching advanced negotiation in simulated environments.
We pursue the interdisciplinary study of developments and trends at the intersection of negotiation and leadership.
We are out in the field working with a global network of motivated citizens on resolving their most pressing issues. Our work takes us to the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, a global community of climate activists and negotiators who travel to each year’s COP climate negotiations, changemakers in conflict zones such as Israel and Palestine, and to countless training rooms with civil servants, foundations, NGOs, and elected officials. And everywhere we go, we bring our core idea that the study and practice of negotiation and conflict resolution can make you more effective interpersonally and can change systems to become more productive, efficient, and collaborative.
History & Mission
In 2016, the predecessor to NCRC, the Kennedy School Negotiation Project, was launched based on the belief that you can’t lead if you can’t negotiate. Today’s public leaders are faced with increasingly complex problems that require cross-boundary, collaborative leadership. At our core, our mission was, and remains, to equip next-generation practitioners with a comprehensive toolkit and repertoire of negotiation skills to enable leaders to tackle the world’s toughest problems.
In 2020, we changed our name to reflect a broader mission: creating a collaborative laboratory, a “collaboratory,” to study, innovate, practice, and discuss the art and science of negotiation and conflict resolution.
Within HKS, we redoubled our efforts to connect students with real-world practitioners, giving them opportunities to sharpen their interpersonal negotiation skills. And we advanced our programming, providing students with the opportunity to practice beyond the classroom and apply tailored frameworks to their unique challenges, while also engaging with frontline negotiators globally.
With the launch of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory, we took our mission outside the doors of HKS.
Create, Convene, Equip
Our work rests on three core pillars:
CREATE
We…
- Conduct research on effective skill-building for negotiations, including negotiation theory and skills.
- Distill cutting-edge research into toolkits and frameworks that people can apply immediately and practically.
- Expose and create synergies by seeking inspiration from different academic fields and practical experiences.
- Innovate on teaching methods.
CONVENE
We…
- Create spaces for co-learning, inspiration, reflection, and community building.
- Enable collaborative spaces between people who usually do not engage collaboratively with each other.
- Learn from and innovate with others by convening interdisciplinary and intersectoral fora.
EQUIP
We…
- Train students, practitioners, leaders, and everyday extraordinary people from various sectors, age groups, backgrounds, and identities through interactive formats.
- Meet people where they are and help them achieve their goals.
Our projects
Turn the Tide: Empowering changemakers for driving climate action
We are building a global hub that empowers, inspires, and connects future climate leaders through research-based teaching, negotiation simulations, and accessible resources. Developed with input from university faculty, climate negotiators, emerging professionals, and seasoned experts, we have developed a full curriculum that integrates core negotiation principles with a focus on the complexities of multi-party climate policy. Turn the Tide addresses disparities facing vulnerable nations and elevates youth voices, providing trainings to hundreds of negotiators yearly and offering a growing platform of free or low-cost resources for educators.
Why It Worked: Research-Backed Strategies for Transforming Conflict
Why It Worked is a pioneering global initiative focused on transforming the future of conflict transformation. By examining the successful transitions from violence to peace in the world’s most seemingly-intractable conflicts over the past 70 years, the initiative identifies key strategies and lessons that can be applied to today’s challenges. With armed conflicts at a record high globally, the need for research-backed, sustainable leadership, system, and peacebuilding strategies has never been more urgent. The initiative provides actionable insights and tools, including the Propeller Framework for Conflict Transformation, to help communities and leaders in conflict zones design locally-driven, long-term solutions. By uncovering the common elements that have driven successful peace processes, we are equipping leaders worldwide with the knowledge to build more resilient societies and create lasting peace, even in the most fractured regions.
The Coaching Clinic
The Coaching Clinic is an intensive clinic for students designed using best practices in negotiation skill development and a research-based coaching protocol. The Clinic is an opportunity to improve your negotiation performance through one-on-one coaching with a trained coach who will understand your personal goals, observe you in multiple exercises, and provide feedback and an opportunity for guided reflection. Our coaching team consists of students and staff who have taken advanced courses in negotiation and are trained in giving feedback and supporting skill development.
Each semester, HKS students have the opportunity to work with Faculty Chair Brian Mandell and Director Monica Giannone to design cutting-edge negotiation cases and simulations to be used in degree program courses, Executive Education programs, and the wider world.
