Challenges surrounding climate change, transportation, housing and civic technology will be addressed by 17 research partnerships starting in February.

Deborah Acosta knew making San Leandro, California, stand out among other San Francisco Bay Area communities would be a challenge when she became its chief innovation officer in 2013. The city of about 90,000, just south of Oakland and across the water from ritzy Silicon Valley cities like YouTube home San Bruno, was still trying to move on from its past as a decaying manufacturing hub and poster child for the restrictive covenants…