The application period has ended for 2025 Early Career Faculty Impact Fellowship awards.
Advancing Research and Scholarship to Action
What will it take to solve the urgent challenges of our time? How can universities enable their rich academic assets to identify solutions to complex issues, such as climate change, income inequality, democratic renewal, and preparedness for pandemics? How can academic expertise support the design, implementation and evaluation of solutions to major challenges?
The Early Career Faculty Impact Fellowship is a part-time, yearlong program for Columbia University faculty who are called to answer these and other questions through the development of actionable research and scholarship. The Fellowship trains and supports highly motivated faculty in deepening their expertise in applied research for social impact through a comprehensive series of workshops and seed funding to get a project idea off the ground.
Early career faculty across all Columbia University schools, affiliates, centers, and departments are eligible to apply.
This year's fellowship begins in spring 2025, with four distinct program phases throughout the year:
- Applied Workshop and Seminar Series (Spring 2025)
- Up to $5,000 Summer Planning Grant and Project Planning (Summer 2025)
- Continuation of Applied Workshops and Seminars, and Proposal Development, Presentations, and Feedback (Fall 2025-Spring 2026)
- Up to $20,000 Seed Grant, and Project Development and Implementation (Spring 2026)
Program participants will explore topics key to strengthening their ability to address complex societal challenges, including developing effective partnerships outside of the university; understanding power dynamics and equity in research and practice; designing human-centered projects; and project planning, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and scaling.
Columbia World Projects’ education, leadership, and training opportunities are designed to advance human welfare and confront the great challenges of our time. As a hub for social impact thought and activities, CWP supports the University’s students, researchers and scholars to solve global challenges with bold solutions.
Eligibility and application process
The Early Career Faculty Impact Fellowship program accepts applications from full-time, assistant and associate professors who have received their highest academic degree within the last 10 years. Exceptions to this timeline will be considered to accommodate career-specific trajectories or other circumstances.
The application cycle for 2025 awards ended on January 31.
Applicants are asked to share their social impact area of interest and research, motivation and desired learning. They are also asked about their initial project idea and partners, though a defined project and partnerships are not required to apply. A curriculum vitae and the name and contact information of a Columbia faculty advisor, Dean or Head of Department who has agreed to provide support to the fellow throughout the year are required when applying. This individual may be contacted by the fellowship program if the applicant is short-listed and interviewed as part of the application review process.
For inquiries, please write to [email protected].
FAQs page
This program was a fantastic opportunity to connect with others across Columbia outside of my original network and to think broadly about the potential for increasing the impact of my research.