Public Interest Technology University Network Challenge 2024

Request for Proposals

Columbia faculty are invited to apply for funding via the Public Interest Technology University Network Challenge (PIT-UN).

The internal deadline for proposals is Friday, May 10, 2024. 

As the first step in the application process, principal investigators must submit an application for internal review by a committee including senior Columbia faculty. The committee will select three proposals that may be submitted to the sponsor as part of this competition.

Proposal Requirements and Submission

• Materials must include responses to all questions in the RFP, with the exception of the items on due diligence documents and on institutional grant administration contacts. Key items include:
  • Proposal narrative (Refer to RFP for guidance.)
  • Budget spreadsheet (Follow template and note multiple tabs.)
  • Theory of Change document (For previously funded projects only.)
  • CV
• Proposals must be submitted via email to [email protected] by Friday, May 10, 2024.
• Those selected to move forward will be notified and invited to submit their proposals via Sponsored Projects Administration. The PI or designee must be available to submit through SPA during the week of May 13, in advance of the sponsor’s external deadline of May 17.

Questions

Find answers about this years Challenge by visiting the 2024 PIT-UN Network Challenge site. If you have further questions, please contact Vice Provost Justin Pearlman at [email protected]. You can also contact the PIT-UN grant program office directly at [email protected].

About the 2024 PIT-UN Network Challenge

The PIT-University Network Challenge seeks to encourage new ideas, foster collaborations, and incentivize resource- and information-sharing among network members. Projects are welcome in the two areas of focus below.

• Educational offerings that foster cross-disciplinary perspectives and credentialing
• Career pipeline/placement efforts to develop a public interest technology workforce in government, industry, and social impact organizations.

Thematic areas of focus include: 

• Climate and the Environment
• Democracy and Elections
• AI, Quantum and Emerging Technologies
• State and Local Government Partnerships
• Gender Justice

In efforts to further the positive social impact of technology for all communities, the PIT-UN Challenge will prioritize projects that center the needs of communities who have historically been denied access to new technologies, been systematically left out of conversations at the intersection of technology and policy, and who have been denied opportunities to join the technology workforce. Centering community needs may be demonstrated by incorporating community partners in the design and execution of proposed projects.

Find more information about project ideas and funding support in the Request for Proposal. Find out more about previously-funded projects by visiting a list of PIT-UN grantees.

Public Interest Technology University Network

The Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN), established in the spring of 2019, is a partnership of colleges and universities dedicated to building the nascent field of public interest technology and growing a new generation of civic-minded technologists. Columbia is a founding member. Convened by the Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and New America, the network represents a major commitment by partners in philanthropy, higher education, and public policy to define and build the public interest technology sector.

The PIT-UN is committed to educating students who can better apply technical understanding and practice to questions of individual rights, justice, social welfare, and the public good, particularly for those members of our society least well served, historically and today, by existing systems and policies.

As it nurtures the pipeline of emerging technologists prepared to approach these questions, the PIT-UN envisions a future where technology policy actively challenges structural inequalities in power, resources, and access by centering the needs of people and communities, particularly for those historically marginalized. In practice, this means that the traditional gatekeepers of technological advancement and public policy interrogate how they can better identify and work with communities in the development of public interest technology as an ecosystem and elevate these communities as co-creators and leaders.

The goals of the network are to:

• Connect accredited nonprofit institutions of higher education in the US that seek to take the lead in establishing and defining the field of public interest technology within academia;
• Spur the development of a strong pipeline of students seeking to pursue careers in public interest technology, broadly defined; taking active measures to ensure that this pipeline is diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, ability, gender, and socioeconomic status; and characterized by a sense of inclusion and belonging for students and practitioners;
• Foster collaborations and connections across the network and to practitioners in the wider ecosystem.

The PIT-UN is supported by founding funders the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Mastercard Impact Fund, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Siegel Endowment, as well as new funders the Raikes Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

More information about the PIT-UN is available on their website.