Internal Seed Funding Opportunities
Multiple internal seed funding programs provide resources to initiate and advance research projects, positioning them to secure subsequent external funding. Columbia faculty are strongly encouraged to explore and engage all internal funding programs for which they are eligible. If you are aware of one or more additional internal seed funding programs that should be recognized on this webpage, please email [email protected] with a 5-6 sentence description, website URL, and contact email address.
Internal research funding opportunities may also be submitted for broad distribution via the Dissemination Request Form.
Open / Active Opportunities
Research that Moves the Needle and New York City Forward
The Columbia Data Science Institute Impact Seed Fund supports Columbia researchers working on data and AI projects with direct, meaningful benefits for New York City communities in partnership with New York City agencies.
Matching Columbia Expertise with New York City Needs
New York City government agencies are solving complex, data-rich challenges every day, and they need the help of University researchers who can deliver impartial analysis and technical expertise that many agencies don’t have in-house. In exchange for this assistance, researchers can access real-world data, and the opportunity to publish findings that matter, all while benefitting New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
DSI is partnering with Pilot City on Pitchfest – a matchmaking program that pairs city agency staff with funded support from University faculty and civic fellows on high-impact projects. The Pitchfest NYC model has previously matched Columbia researchers with agencies to develop solutions that better the lives of New Yorkers. Funded through a range of philanthropies, PilotCity is making $500,000 available to support academic collaborations with partner agencies.
Proven at Scale, Powered by DSI
This year, Columbia DSI is providing a dedicated funding pool of up to $300,000 for Columbia researchers to participate in projects with a data science and AI focus. From predictive analytics to machine learning, the problems facing New York City require data-driven solutions. Columbia researchers have the precise skills and expertise required to drive impact and move the needle. The DSIxNYC Impact Seed Fund unleashes the power of the Columbia University data science and AI research community to find solutions to move New York City forward.
From Research to Real Policy and Action
Projects funded through this initiative are structured to influence agency programs, policies and operations within six months from selection. Every funded project must demonstrate a clear path from findings to decision-making – ensuring that faculty researchers’ intellectual output translates directly into better service to benefit communities across the City.
Funding Structure
The DSI x NYC Impact Seed Fund operates as a supplementary funding pool within the broader PilotCity: New York Pitchfest program. Columbia faculty who are matched with a City agency are eligible for DSI support in addition to the program’s standard pitchfest grants.
Project Seed Grants
PilotCity will provide up to a $40,000 project maximum for each awarded agency-research match. DSI will review the range of projects and projected budgets for particular projects and are willing to provide up to $75,000 per project for funding data science or AI related projects that are matched with a city agency. This will either supplement funding for awarded PilotCity matches, or separately fund projects that were not awarded through PilotCity. This will be a competitive process and not all applications will result in funding.
DSI funding must go to direct project costs to support research costs, data infrastructure, personnel (such as Masters or PhD students or postdoctoral researchers), and deliverable development. Please note that PI salaries are not eligible for funding.
Project Duration: Meaningful Outcomes, Rapidly
All funded projects must be designed to produce actionable findings within a six-month window, and must include a clear plan for influencing agency programs, policies, or operations before the period closes.
Who Should Apply
Built for Columbia faculty ready to collaborate.
- A Columbia University faculty member with Principal Investigator (PI status)
- Special preference will be given to core members of the Data Science Institute
- Project leverages data science and/or artificial intelligence methods
- Project meets PilotCity criteria for the Pitchfest program
- PI is matched with a willing city agency staff member established through the Pitchfest program
- Commitment and ability to demonstrate meaningful outcomes within a six month time frame from selection
- Agreement to make any IP generated open source
- Sign a COI Disclosure and participation agreement
The Process
From Pitchfest to Funded Project in Five Steps.
Step 1: By May 8, 2026
Agency pitches submitted.
NYC agency staff submit two-minute project pitches. Columbia faculty can preview the list of participating agencies and challenges, which will be posted on the Pitchfest website on May 15.
RSVP here for the May 21st event – register early, last year the event reached capacity.
Step 2: By May 21, 2026
Pitchfest: New York City
Attend Pitchfest at NYU Tandon’s Pfizer Auditorium and learn more about the projects where New York City can use your help. This is your opportunity to identify projects where your data science and AI expertise is most relevant.
Step 3: By June 2, 2026
Express Interest in Specific Projects
Faculty will be invited to submit an online application describing your interest and relevant experience for specified agency pitches. The Pitchfest team will assemble shortlists for agency review. The Pitchfest team will also provide Columbia DSI with a list of projects where Columbia faculty have expressed interest and DSI will review those applications as a part of the supplemental funding pool.
Step 4: By July 17, 2026
Agency-Faculty Matches Confirmed
Agency staff interview shortlisted experts and select their research partners. DSI will be notified of matches that have been made between Columbia faculty and city agencies that are eligible for supplemental funding.
Step 5: By August 14, 2026
DSI x NYC Impact Seed Fund Application Submitted
Matched agency-faculty pairs jointly submit a funding application. Criteria for selection for DSI Impact Seed Funding will be focused on clarity of outcomes, quality of data science and AI with each project, methodological soundness, policy impact, potential and novelty.
Decisions for the DSI x NYC Impact Seed Fund will be issued in mid-September.
Get Involved
Ready to put Columbia expertise to work for New York?
Columbia Faculty: Your city is waiting for you.
If you are a Columbia faculty researcher with PI eligible status, expertise in data science, AI, machine learning or related fields, the DSIxNYC Impact Seed Fund is your on-ramp to partnering with New York City government.
Start by registering for Pitchfest: New York City on May 21 – it is free and open to all Columbia faculty and the first step towards a funded collaboration.
Register: pitchfestnewyorkcity.eventbrite.com
Questions on DSI X NYC Impact Seed Fund: [email protected]
General Inquiries on Pitchfest: [email protected]
Recurring Opportunities (Currently Closed)
The Alliance Call for Joint Projects is intended to support transatlantic projects of the highest quality, both in scientific research and collaborative teaching efforts, between full-time officers of instruction of professorial rank faculty members of all disciplines within the Alliance network (École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University).
The Joint Projects aim to promote new efforts in joint research proposal development, pilot research, collaborative teaching endeavors, and other activities in order to create new international collaborative initiatives. Projects must be presented jointly by at least one faculty member from Columbia University and one faculty member from any one of the three French institutions.
The Call for Applications is OPEN. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2025
The Alliance Call for Doctoral Mobility is intended to support and finance intercontinental research projects of the highest quality, in all disciplines, from doctoral students affiliated to one of the four partner institutions. Doctoral students are encouraged to pursue their research abroad under the supervision of a host faculty member: students from the three French institutions can complete a research visit at Columbia University while students from Columbia can complete a research visit at École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, or Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
The Call for Applications is OPEN. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2025.
Each year, Alliance selects six faculty members to participate in transatlantic faculty exchanges: École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University each receive one member of the Columbia University faculty, and one faculty member from each of the French institutions is selected to go to Columbia University. These faculty members spend one semester or a few weeks as a Visiting Professor at the partner institution, teaching a course and giving public lectures. This gives them the opportunity to strengthen the link between the schools and to establish long-term contacts for collaboration on future projects.
The Call for Applications is OPEN. The deadline to apply is December 31, 2025.
Grants will be awarded to support faculty research and public policy analysis focused on topics relevant to the Center’s mission. This includes policy-relevant work on economic, geopolitical, technical, institutional and environmental issues related to the production and consumption of energy.
http://energypolicy.columbia.edu/about-us/cgep-faculty-grant-program-2016-17
Contact: [email protected]
The Columbia Biomedical Technology Accelerator (formerly the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership) aims to catalyze the advancement of biomedical technologies by providing funding, education, resources and mentorship to teams of clinicians, engineers and scientists working to develop solutions to clinical unmet needs, with the ultimate goal of bringing innovative research out of the lab to benefit society.
Project support is expected to serve as a bridge to commercial investment, with awards granted to perform specific tasks needed to validate a commercial hypothesis (vs. a scientific hypothesis).
All technologies with the potential to directly impact human health will be considered (e.g. therapeutic drugs and devices, medical imaging, monitoring devices, biosensors, biomaterials, and platform technologies). Eligible teams must be comprised of both an engineer and a clinician. At least one PI must have a faculty appointment at Columbia, and the technology should be an idea or invention based on Columbia intellectual property.
Contact: [email protected]
Faculty applications are being accepted until Tuesday, March 7 at 5:00 PM ET.
The Columbia Center for Political Economy (CCPE) at Columbia World Projects (CWP) seeks applications for grant funding from eligible Columbia University faculty. The center’s mission is to identify and advance engaged scholarship that promotes a new political economy, broadly understood, with a robust institutional, cross-disciplinary orientation. The first round of grants are framed around firms and antitrust and work and labor.
Faculty may apply for $10,000 to $60,000 in funding.
Learn more about the requirements. https://worldprojects.columbia.edu/center-political-economy-faculty-grant-opportunity
Contact: Columbia Center for Political Economy, [email protected]
The goal of the Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC) seed grant program is to advance intellectually innovative research projects in population, health, and society to the point where they can attract external funding. The CPRC is interested in proposals that 1) focus on the CPRC’s four primary research areas; 2) link cutting-edge research in neuroscience with the social, behavioral, or health sciences; 3) propose globally-focused research in collaboration with a Columbia Global Center(s); and/or 4) develop research methodology. Policy-related research should be oriented toward pressing social issues in the domestic or international arena.
http://cupop.columbia.edu/services/seed-grant-program
Contact: [email protected]
The Data Science and Health Initiative (DASHI) invites applications for pilot projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence and health sciences. DASHI expects to fund at least two projects, up to $75K each.
DASHI will encourage the formation of interdisciplinary project teams through a cross-campus brainstorming workshop this fall.
Workshop Date: Friday, December 10, 2021 (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST) — VIRTUAL
Attendance during this workshop is part of the funding application process. Columbia University faculty members may either:
- Submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) here before the workshop to be considered for DASHI funding. Accepted summaries will be presented during the workshop.The LOI submission deadline is Tuesday, November 23, 2021.
- Those who do not submit an LOI are encouraged to register for the Dec. 10 workshop to meet others and potentially join an existing project team.
The Dec. 10 workshop will include a plenary session of invited speakers and lightning talks from accepted LOI summaries and breakout working groups to meet other research teams and explore areas for collaboration.
PI Eligibility Criteria: Any faculty member/research scientist across the Morningside or CUIMC campuses. Postdoctoral researchers may participate in a collaborative team.
Please see details, funding timeline, and more on the registration page.
Contact: [email protected]
The goal of the DSI Seeds Funds Program is to support new collaborations that will lead to longer term and deeper relationships among faculty in different disciplines across campus. Aimed at advancing research that combines data science expertise with domain expertise, the DSI Seed Funds Program focuses primarily on the second and third parts of DSI’s mission statement. We are as interested in the application of data science to all domains as in bringing in the sensibilities of other domains, especially to address the fair and ethical use of data.
http://datascience.columbia.edu/seed-funds-program
Contact: [email protected]
The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) is committed to facilitating innovative, cutting edge technologies and research endeavors. Cancer Center Support Grant pilot projects that are both pioneering and scientifically impactful are the crux of this philosophy. HICCC manages internal pilot project funding opportunities for scientists to pursue research focused on development of new cancer therapies. These pilot projects have led to numerous high impact publications and peer-reviewed sponsored projects. We also provide links to external funding opportunities that are cancer-related.
https://columbia.infoready4.com/#HICCCfundingopportunities
Contact: [email protected] or [email protected]
The Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (the Irving Institute) at CUIMC is funded in part by an NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). The Irving Institute provides Columbia University investigators with services and programs that span the translational science spectrum from basic research to public health, including funding opportunities, research support services, core facilities, community engagement, seminars and workshops, and education, training and mentoring.
https://www.irvinginstitute.columbia.edu/
Contact: [email protected]
The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy's seed grants program funds a limited number of investigators who seek to undertake major research programs that may require initial results or proof of concept to attract external funding. The Institute provides seed grants for projects pursuing basic social science inquiry and policy related study. ISERP’s seed grant program has the following goals:
- To support Columbia investigators in the development of innovative, transformative projects in the social sciences.
- To provide resources and support to faculty to produce compelling, well-crafted proposals for external funding.
In addition to research, ISERP funds Start Up Centers, Workshops, and Conferences.
Contact: [email protected]
The Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Scholars Program supports physicians who are on tenure track and conduct research that has the promise of ultimately bringing new treatments to patients. The fund will provide a stipend of $75,000 per year for up to three years to be used for salary or laboratory support of the awardees. During their time as a Gerstner Scholar, each investigator is expected to seek and obtain funding from NIH or other sponsors in order to effectively progress on an academic career track. Please note that due to the overlap in the terms of the award for the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Scholars Program and the Irving Scholars Program, faculty are eligible to hold only one of these awards at any one time.
Contact: [email protected]
This small-grants program is designed to support Schools’ diversity plans, by advancing the career success of outstanding mid-career faculty who have received tenure for the first time in the previous seven years, have made a recent, significant contribution to their field, and who contribute to the diversity goals of the University by their research, teaching, and mentoring activities. Requests for proposals occur once a year and the maximum award is $37,500 total over three years.
https://provost.columbia.edu/content/mid-career-faculty-grants
If your primary appointment is at CUIMC, please direct your inquiries to Mandy Lin at [email protected].
The Paul Marks Scholars Program supports the recruitment or retention of outstanding early career physician/scientists who have distinguished themselves as exceptionally promising in their field. This award is named in honor of Dr. Paul A. Marks, an internationally-renowned cell biologist, physician, and scientist, and an exceptional academic leader. Dr. Marks, who developed the Department of Human Genetics at P&S and served as its first chair, was also the Dean of the Faculties of Medicine and Vice President for Health Sciences. The program funds up to three physician scientists and/or scientists at $100,000 per year for a period of three years.
https://www.ps.columbia.edu/research/funding/funding-opportunities/paul-marks-scholars-program
Contact: [email protected]
Pilot grant awards for Columbia faculty, post-docs and graduate students are available from the Precision Medicine and Society Program (part of Columbia's Precision Medicine Initiative). These awards are designed to support work on issues relating to the social, legal, economic, humanistic and ethical societal impact of precision medicine and new genomic technologies. Projects (e.g. the impact of genomic information on personal privacy, the economic impact of precision medicine) should have the potential to lead to broader explorations of the area. Collaborative interdisciplinary projects are encouraged, as is the exploration of issues that represent a new focus of work for applicants.
Proposals will be considered in two categories: 1) smaller proposals (generally involving a single applicant) at budgets up to $7,500 and 2) larger proposals (generally involving multiple applicants) at budgets up to $15,000. Additional support may be available from the Precision Medicine and Society Program for followup projects.
https://precisionmedicine.columbia.edu/content/precision-medicine-and-society
Contact: [email protected]
The Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience (PSSN) program aims to facilitate cross-disciplinary, collaborative research to advance our understanding of mind, brain, and behavior. This unique program fosters direct communication and knowledge-sharing among experts in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences through lectures and events, funding collaborative faculty research projects, and in a cross-disciplinary postdoctoral scholars program through the Center for Science and Society.
The PSSN program awards faculty up to 5 grants per year for interdisciplinary research or teaching initiative proposals that either involve direct collaboration between neuroscientists and faculty from other disciplines or cross disciplinary boundaries to investigate important issues in society and neuroscience.
For more information, please visit https://presidentialscholars.columbia.edu/
Contact: [email protected]
The Research Initiatives in Science & Engineering (RISE) competition supports early-stage, high-risk, high-impact, and interdisciplinary research collaborations in the basic sciences, engineering, and biomedicine, focusing exclusively on basic/discovery research (and not applied or translational projects). RISE is designed to initiate faculty collaborations – preferably between researchers from separate departments and schools – who have jointly conceptualized a project that cannot receive funding through conventional sources either because the project is too preliminary, risky, or unusual (i.e. too interdisciplinary for any one agency’s scope).
RISE accepts proposals from all disciplines within the sciences, engineering, and medicine, and evaluates eligible proposals through two rounds of intensive reviews involving over 70 senior researchers across the University, ultimately awarding 4-6 teams per year. Awarded teams receive up to $80,000 in funding for one year, with the possibility of another $80,000 for a second year.
Contact: [email protected]
The Schaefer Research Scholars Program Awards, made possible through a generous bequest from Dr. Ludwig Schaefer, are made annually to four research scientists who have distinguished themselves in the science of human physiology, as broadly defined and whose current work is of outstanding merit with significant academic distinction. Their proposed research must illuminate the field. Two awards are made to research scientists residing or working in North or South America and two awards are made to research scientists residing or working outside of North or South America. Each award consists of a $50,000 cash prize and up to $200,000 in direct research support.
Contact: [email protected]
SIRS proposals will be accepted from faculty member pairs or groups (two or more on a single proposal) who work in different fields, with the lead PI from SEAS. The SIRS initiative aims to foster new collaboration across disciplines, and preference will be given to faculty who have not worked together before. The STAR program aims to support the translation of later stage Columbia research to a stage ready for real-world impact. Each STAR proposal may be submitted by a single faculty member (from SEAS) or a faculty group (with lead PI from SEAS).
Faculty are encouraged to explore collaborating on topics in the thematic areas of our Strategic Vision: Columbia Engineering for a Sustainable, Healthy, Secure, Connected and Creative Humanity, as well as foundational areas, for example, those listed below or beyond:
- Engineering for Global Sustainability and Confronting Climate Change
- Engineering for Health and Medicine (most would fall under the Blavatnik Fund)
- Materials, Sensors, and Devices
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computational Science and Engineering
Descriptions of projects funded in previous rounds may be found here.
https://portal.seas.columbia.edu/funding/sirs/
If you have further questions, please email [email protected].