The Columbia Global Innovation Awards Request for Applications is now open! Learn more about this new opportunity, including how to apply.
Purpose
CWP Social Impact Awards have supported faculty and researchers from across Columbia University who seek to address pressing global challenges with innovative approaches that aim to transform thinking, demonstrate solutions, and create sustained change. Social impact projects included activities designed to advance research and scholarship that are coupled with actions that develop, test, implement and/or scale targeted activities to improve the lives and well-being of individuals, communities and/or societies.
Project Criteria
While the theme for the Social Impact Awards changes annually, all projects must have met the following criteria:
- Collaboration — Inclusion of at least two faculty or researchers from distinct Columbia units as part of the project leadership
- Partnership — Evidence of partnership and equitable collaborations with partners outside Columbia University (e.g., government agencies, bilateral agencies, civil society organizations, private sector partners, and academic institutions)
- Interdisciplinarity — In project design, development and implementation
- Advancement of Scholarship and Evidence — Articulation of how the project will advance scholarship and derive evidence for solutions
- Measurement and Impact — Demonstration of clear and measurable outputs and outcomes
- Student involvement — Engagement of Columbia University undergraduate students, graduate students or postdocs in the project
- Social Justice — Commitment to advancing gender equity and racial justice
Past Recipients
- 2025: Building Inclusive Cities add
The 2025 CWP Social Impact Awards addressed the theme “Building Inclusive Cities,” selecting four projects that seek to mobilize university capacities to address challenges faced by cities around the world.
- A Circular Economy Approach To Reviving Bengaluru’s Water Systems aims to explore the interface between peri-urban growth, and the depletion and contamination of vital water resources in Bengaluru, India by fostering a circular water economy using urban design, climate education, community engagement and public health approaches.
- Clean Air Monitoring Interventions for Empowering Communities in Severely Under-Monitored Sections of Queens County, New York aims to streamline multiple forms of air quality data including satellite data, ground-based reference monitors, and ground-based air sensors, to develop a daily update on air quality in this geographic area . The project will deploy new monitoring sites in previously unmonitored areas, with local schools and community groups building and owning the sensors.
- Emissions Community LiDAR Exploratory Project (ECLIP) aims to improve air quality in cities by using advanced light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to more accurately identify sources of pollution. By combining cutting-edge science and instruments with community input, ECLIP hopes to fill gaps in emissions inventory data to inform environmental policymaking, community health, and equity in NYC and offer the potential to be scaled to other cities globally.
- Popular Transport and Inclusive Cities: Child and women friendly mobility and access in Ahmednagar and Mumbai — Rooted in the peripheral neighborhoods of Ahmednagar and Mumbai, this project aims to improve safe and affordable transportation services and access for women and children, combining digital technologies, community-led planning and engagement with auto-rickshaw networks in a novel way to build more inclusive and resilient cities.
- A Circular Economy Approach To Reviving Bengaluru’s Water Systems aims to explore the interface between peri-urban growth, and the depletion and contamination of vital water resources in Bengaluru, India by fostering a circular water economy using urban design, climate education, community engagement and public health approaches.
- 2024: Enabling Thriving Communities add
The 2024 CWP Impact Awards addressed the theme “Enabling Thriving Communities,” selecting three projects that support community well-being and resilience by advancing practices and policies that enable safe conditions for all.
- Healing Roots: An Evidence Map and Roadmap for Refugee Mental Health Interventions includes the development of a Mental Health Evidence Roadmap – an online, open-access, user-friendly, multi-component tool designed to organize and synthesize existing research on refugee mental health interventions.
- Strengthening Capacities and Civic Participation for Climate Resilient Communities in Chile seeks to support municipalities in Chile in addressing climate change by providing technical and planning support for the development and implementation of Local Climate Action Plans.
- Ubumwe 2.0: Integrating Arts for Education and Psychosocial Support with Children and Youth Affected by Displacement in Uganda aims to integrate culturally and contextually relevant arts education in schools for children and youth affected by displacement, and to support teachers in the uptake of arts-based practices that meaningfully support children.
- Healing Roots: An Evidence Map and Roadmap for Refugee Mental Health Interventions includes the development of a Mental Health Evidence Roadmap – an online, open-access, user-friendly, multi-component tool designed to organize and synthesize existing research on refugee mental health interventions.
- 2023: Supporting Generations add
The first Social Impact Awards focused on the theme of “Supporting Generations”, supporting evidence-based, people-centered strategies specific to a particular stage of life. The call for proposals was widely shared across Columbia’s 19 schools, institutes, centers and affiliates, eliciting 38 proposals from 15 distinct disciplines across the university. Proposals were required to include faculty across disciplines, involve external partners, focus on fourth purpose work, demonstrate student engagement and plan for measurable outcome/impact.
- Piloting Ubumwe: Arts for Education and Psychosocial Support with Refugee Children and Youth aimed to bolster psychosocial and educational outcomes among refugee children and youth through the integration of arts in education and community spaces.
- Planting Stories: Seeds of Diaspora aimed to further understanding of how plant-based knowledge can enhance high school students’ nutrition and health. The team designed and tested a program that includes a school based curriculum, creative workshops, interviews with elders and foraging walks, as well as created an archive of students’ work to document learning.
- Project SHINE! Supporting Healthy Interaction, Nurturing, and Enrichment for Preschool Children aimed to develop and test “wraparound health services” for preschool children, to include a preschool-based health unit, household health visits, community health events, and a nutritional teaching garden, as well as linkage to community health facilities and nutrition support.
- Piloting Ubumwe: Arts for Education and Psychosocial Support with Refugee Children and Youth aimed to bolster psychosocial and educational outcomes among refugee children and youth through the integration of arts in education and community spaces.