Research Funding

This page provides over 20 different funding sources and information on the various offices that provide research support. There is also information about the Columbia-sponsored Faculty Research Allocation Program (FRAP) and the Tenured Faculty Research Program (TFRP).

Clinical Trials Office

The mission of the Clinical Trials Office is to facilitate quality clinical trial research - the effective and efficient evaluation of new pharmaceuticals and medical devices - by providing the Columbia University Medical Center research community with comprehensive administrative services that help move trials quickly from initial proposal through contract execution. CTO assists with trials supported by federal and foundation grants and industry contracts, including investigator-initiated trials.

Columbia Technology Ventures

Columbia Technology Ventures helps facilitate transfer of scientific discoveries and innovations from the University setting to the marketplace in furtherance of the public interest. CTV’s mission is:

To facilitate the translation of academic research into practical applications, for the benefit of society on a local, national and global basis
To support the research of Columbia faculty by generating funding for the University and facilitating partnerships with industry where appropriate
To educate and serve as a resource for the Columbia community on matters relating to entrepreneurship, intellectual property, and technology commercialization.
If you believe that you have an invention or discovery that is or may be patentable, contact CTV for guidance on filing the appropriate forms and to obtain a brochure explaining the technology transfer process. CTV also can assist researchers on material transfer agreements that may be required to send or receive certain reagents.

Environmental Health & Safety

EH&RS provide a broad range of services to promote the health and safety of all university personnel, and to protect the health and safety of the community and the environment in which we live and work. Personnel conducting laboratory research using potentially infections materials, hazardous chemicals, recombinant DNA, and/or radioactive materials need to attend the relevant EH&RS-sponsored safety training(s). The use of recombinant DNA must be approved by Columbia's Institutional Biosafety Committee. The ER&RS web site contains laboratory safety information along with safety training schedules.

Executive Vice President For Research

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research has overall responsibility for the University's research enterprise. It oversees most of the operations which support research and is responsible for establishing and maintaining University-wide policies relating to research. The Office also assists investigators seeking research funding, encourages interdisciplinary research, provides seed money for early stage investigations, and generally helps provide for the intellectual and physical environment to maintain high quality of research and maximize productivity. The office includes a Research Initiatives Coordinator to offer special support for center grants and other large cross-disciplinary projects.

Human Subjects Research

If you plan to conduct research that involves human subjects, including biomedical investigations, one of Columbia's four Institutional Review Boards will help ensure that your study complies with all applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. The University's IRB's are responsible for protecting human subjects in research and are made up of faculty and community members. All human subjects research conducted by Columbia Faculty, staff and students must be approved by a Columbia IRB.

Individual School and Center Seeds Funds

Many centers and schools offer seed funding as well from time to time. Examples are Columbia University Population Center and the Earth Institute. You may wish to contact central administration at your center or school to inquire about the existence of such opportunities.

Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

The mission of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs is to enhance the educational and training experience of the University's postdoctoral appointees. The Office provides administrative support, serves as an information clearinghouse, and fosters communication among postdocs, faculty and administrators. it also works to promote consistency in University policies that affect postdocs.

Office of Research Initiatives (RI)

The Office of Research Initiatives works across disciplines, schools and campuses to foster interdisciplinary research collaboration, and supports efforts to secure funding for such collaborations. They provide:

· Interdisciplinary opportunities and/or shared instrumentation grants

· Seed funding

· Limited submissions - where only a select number of grant applications are allowed to be submitted to a sponsor on behalf of Columbia University (as determined by the sponsor)

· Several Listservs available for:

· Basic Science, Technology and Engineering

· Medical Research

· Stem Cell Research

RASCAL

RASCAL is the University's on-line research compliance system. Through RASCAL, you can create and submit for regular approval most research protocols, draft content forms, complete required and additional training, build a CV, and submit your conflict of interest disclosures.

Research Compliance and Training

The Office of Research Compliance and Training helps ensure that Columbia faculty and staff are in compliance with the complex web of regulatory requirements that govern research. The ORCT collaborates with many of the other offices on campus to foster an integrated research compliance program. The ORCT administers the University's Conflict of Interest review process for research, serves as a resource for international research compliance issues, and administers Columbia's Standing Committee on Conduct of Research, which addresses issues of research misconduct. The ORCT works to integrate compliance education programming across the University, and to develop new programming that promotes understanding of compliance issues throughout the research enterprise. The ORCT web site contains information about required training for researchers, postdocs and others involved in research.

University Corporate & Foundation Relations, Office of Alumni and Development

The Office of University Corporate & Foundation Relations works with Columbia University faculty and administrators, foundations and corporations to develop partnerships that advance Columbia’s research, scholarship and strategic initiatives,and support the university’s core mission to serving its students, faculty, and the world.

The office can work with you on all stages of foundation fundraising, from foundations prospect research, to cultivation of relationships with foundations, to proposal development and submission, and stewardship/reporting.

Please contact Dimitra Koutsantoni, PhD, Senior Director of University Corporate and Foundation Relations, for further information

The Foundation Center

We encourage the use of SPIN Plus for all non-federal funding searches.

However, The Foundation Center can also provide information about the foundations and corporations that provide grants. The Center has the Foundation Finder that offers basic information on sponsors in the United States, including private foundations, community foundations, public charities and corporate giving programs.

To search the Foundation Finder: https://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/foundfinder/

The Foundation Directory

The Foundation Directory is a database of 80,000 grantors and 500,000 awards.

To search the Foundation Directory: https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/

Research Initiatives For Science and Engineering (RISE)

Each year, the Office of the EVPR sponsors a competition for RISE funding. These seed monies enable researchers to initiate a project to develop a novel theory or idea in order to gather the data necessary to then secure external funding. Interdisciplinary projects are favored. These formal announcements are sent via email to the University community, and contain the details on proposal submission, availability of funds, eligibility and deadlines.

For more information about RISE: https://researchinitiatives.columbia.edu/fundingresources/research-initiatives-science-and-engineering-rise .

Top-Up Policy

Research Policies

Proprietary Rights in the Intellectual Products of Faculty Activity

Conflict of Interest

Potential Conflicts of Interest Between Scholarly and Commercial Activities

Other University Policies

Controller’s Policies

The FRAP Card is a university purchasing card exclusively for use in the Arts & Sciences Faculty Research Allocation Program (FRAP). The card can be used for most FRAP purchases, including, but not limited to, air and ground transportation, book purchases, office supplies, shipping, professional membership dues, computers, computer peripherals and software.

The FRAP Card is a declining balance card. Each faculty member eligible for FRAP will be issued a FRAP Card pre-set with a spending limit that matches his/her FRAP allocation. Faculty can use the card in stores or on-line where VISA is accepted for FRAP-eligible purchases up to the amount of their individual FRAP allocations. As purchases are made, the amount available to spend on the card will automatically decrease until the FRAP allocation is fully spent.

What are the benefits of the FRAP Card?

No Layout of Funds; No Waiting to be Reimbursed – All purchases are charged directly to a FRAP account in the Arts & Sciences.
No Sales Tax on Most Purchases – The FRAP Card clearly identifies Columbia University’s tax exempt status.
Reduction of Paperwork – No travel and business expense reports to be signed and approved by Arts & Sciences and Accounts Payable.
Later FRAP Deadline – By eliminating the reimbursement process with Accounts Payable, we can extend the FRAP deadline for FRAP Card purchases from the first week of May to last week in May.

Fill out the FRAP Application here.

The FRAP Card guidelines and overview is here.

For any questions regarding FRAP, please contact [email protected].

Due to the high volume of inquiries surrounding the program, please allow at least one business day for a response.

Tenured Faculty Research Program

The Arts & Sciences Tenured faculty Research Program (TFRP) is a research program that is used to assist tenured faculty in their research. The program consists of 2 parts and faculty can choose each year how they wish to allocate there TFRP each year. This choice can be changed each year as the faculty member so chooses. The 2 different ways are a research leave credit or a salary payment made to the faculty.

The Research Leave Credit option;

The research leave credit which is choice I on the form gives the faculty member a TFRP leave credit, you earn 1 leave credit each year. You receive this leave credit whether you are on leave (with few exceptions) or teaching. This differs from sabbatical credits which are only earned while teaching.

4 Leave credits allow a semester of leave at full salary or 2 semesters of leave at half salary.

These leaves can also be manipulated to coincide with awards, fellowships or grants to allow you to receive outside grants and supplement your income so that you receive full salary. (For example your semester salary is $100,000, you receive a fellowship from an outside institution that will be paying you $50,000 directly, you can supplement that with a half of a TFRP leave using 2 credits to take a partial salary leave also at $50,000. This keeps you at full salary).

The maximum number of leave credits that one can carry is 8. The TFRP leave will need to be requested through your chair, who will then forward their approval to the Executive Vice President of Arts & Sciences (EVPA&S) office for their approval, which then goes to the Provosts office for their final approval.

The leave credit option includes FRAP (unless an agreement was made which “is in lieu of FRAP).

The Salary payment;

The salary payment option can be taken in one of 3 ways;

A salary supplement equal to 1/9^th of your Arts & Sciences salary (this will also include SIPA), which is paid as additional compensation. The salary payment will be included with your regular paycheck and will be subject to withholding taxes. This payment can be taken either in one month or over a series of consecutive months to your choosing (The earliest that the payments can be disbursed is July and the latest that you can receive payment is the following June).
The 1/9^th salary can be put into a Personnel Services Account which sits in your department. This account can only be used to pay people (other than yourself) for services rendered. It can only be used to pay people, cannot to be used for other research related expenses.
A combination of the Salary supplement and Personnel services account, the personnel services account can be funded either with a percentage of the TFRP amount or a fixed dollar amount.

Choosing the Stipend (choice II) will make you ineligible for the FRAP program.

Childcare Supplement Program

The Accelerate Donor Led Faculty Science Grants were established in 2025 and are
designed to help faculty make bold scientific discoveries in the basic sciences by
supporting innovative, potentially high-risk/high-reward research ideas backed by
philanthropic members of the scientific community. All tenure-track faculty within the
Division of Natural Sciences are eligible to apply.

The next deadline for the Accelerate program is September 26th at 5pm EST.

See the most recent call for proposals here.

Tenure-track Faculty in any of the 9 Natural Sciences departments should send
program inquires and applications to the Office of the Dean of Natural Sciences at
[email protected] .