Announcing RFPs for the President’s Global Innovation Fund and for the Global Scholars Program

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,

We are pleased to announce Requests for Proposals for two distinct initiatives: the President’s Global Innovation Fund and the Global Scholars Program. These competitive grant programs are designed to provide support for faculty to work with the Columbia Global Centers, a worldwide network that facilitates collaborative engagement with international partners to address global challenges and advance knowledge. Awardees receive support to leverage the resources, expertise, and cross-regional connections of the nine centers, located in Brazil, Chile, China, France, India, Jordan, Kenya, Tunisia, and Turkey. A detailed description of each of the Columbia Global Centers can be found here.

• President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF) provides support for faculty who want to utilize the facilities and resources of one or more of the University’s Global Centers for teaching, research, and service activities cutting across a broad range of disciplines. Across the previous six rounds of competition, 87 proposals were selected for funding and every Global Center has been engaged. Information on the program and the previous rounds of funded projects can be found on the Columbia Global Centers website at https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/cgc-pgif.

We invite two types of proposals for PGIF awards: planning grants, which award up to $20,000 for a period of one year; and project grants, which award up to $30,000 per year for a period of two years, and are capped at $50,000 for the entire project.

The PGIF RFP can be downloaded here.

• Global Scholars Program (GSP) is a model for curricular innovation that supports programs of intellectual rigor, cultural immersion, and opportunities for personal, academic, and professional growth at the undergraduate level. Global topics are explored in the classroom in New York and abroad, giving undergraduates first-hand opportunities to study and conduct research using social science, humanities, and scientific frameworks.

Faculty are invited to present proposals for a two-part curriculum: first, an on-campus three- or four-point course held in Spring 2020 that introduces students to course themes, followed by a five-point Summer 2020 course taught overseas. GSP applications will be funded up to $100,000 each.

The GSP RFP can be downloaded here.

Proposals will be reviewed by faculty representing a range of disciplines and schools. The deadline for submission for the President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF) programs is February 5, 2019, and the deadline for the Global Scholars Program is March 8, 2019. Please click on the links above to review the eligibility and application requirements for each program, as they vary. 

We look forward to continuing to support Columbia faculty and researchers as they develop new projects and innovative curricula across the globe.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinger, President

John H. Coatsworth, Provost

Safwan M. Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development

James J. Valentini, Vice President for Undergraduate Education