The Columbia Center for Political Economy seeks applications for grant funding from eligible Columbia University doctoral candidates. The Center will provide graduate students with financial support to conduct research within the field of political economy, understood broadly.
About the Center for Political Economy
Launched in 2022, the Center identifies and advances the most promising contemporary developments within economics and promotes a new political economy with robust, intellectual and policy incubators across distinct themes: Work and Labor, Firms and Industrial Policy, Money and Finance, the Political Economy of Climate and International Political Economy.
Grant funds, for example, may be utilized to:
- Purchase data or computing resources
- Hire research assistants
- Conduct new research
- Travel to archives and/or external academic convenings
- Organize workshops and conferences
- In extraordinary circumstances, provide for a teaching buyout
Awards are anticipated to range from $5,000 to $15,000. In extraordinary circumstances with departmental approval, grants may be provided to fund a semester long buyout of teaching responsibilities. Additionally, to encourage collaboration and cross-disciplinary work, grants more than $15,000 may be awarded to collaborative research projects.
In evaluating proposals, Center faculty reviewers will prioritize collaborative and multidisciplinary projects, those with the potential to break new ground in understanding the intersections of economics and political and social processes in the U.S., and those advancing theoretical, conceptual, and methodological innovation. Learn more about past Graduate Student Grantees and their research topics here.
Who Can Apply?
Columbia University PhD and JSD candidates from all disciplines are encouraged to propose projects. Proposals submitted by applicants from more than one department and/or school are encouraged.
Key Deadlines
The deadline for proposal submissions is Monday, Oct. 14. Recipients will be selected in Dec. 2026, and the award period will run from Jan. 1, 2027 to Dec. 31, 2027.
Topics
The Center invites applications from eligible Columbia post-graduate students on topics of relevance to the Center’s broad priorities. This includes the focus areas of the Center’s five Idea Labs — Firms and Industrial Policy, Work and Labor, Money and Finance, International Political Economy, and Climate — as well as the cross-cutting theme of the relationship between Political Economy and Democracy.
- Firms and Industrial Policy: seeks to strengthen the knowledge base for smart industrial policy through explorations of firm behavior, drivers of innovation and technology adoption, conceptual issues in the design of industrial policies, and practical issues faced in implementation.
- Work and Labor: focuses on the empirical study of labor and labor markets, including collective worker action and the future of domestic and international labor movements.
- Money and Finance: explores the relation of money and finance both in theoretical terms and in institutional configurations, including the design of financial intermediaries and their relation to central banks and financial market regulators.
- Political Economy of Climate: explores how political and economic forces shape policy and societal responses to climate change.
- Political Economy and Democracy: challenges emanating from the relationship between economic structures and democratic politics, such as economic and political inequalities and polarization and challenges to democratic institutions and processes.
- International Political Economy: consideration of any of the above themes from an international perspective, as well as topics relevant to the theme of international macroeconomics and geopolitics.
Proposal Requirements
A completed application includes the following:
- Project proposal (see application for additional details)
- Budget narrative and budget template (i.e., a summary table with a clear line-item description of how the grant funds would be spent)
- CVs for primary applicant and any collaborators
- A short reference from each applicants’ supervising professor(s)
FAQs
The online application opens the first week of September and will close on Monday, Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. EST. Recipients will be notified in December 2026.
No, you may return to the application as many times as needed until the application deadline. Once your application is submitted, no additional changes can be made.
The executive summary must be limited to 350 words. The proposal narrative is limited to 3,000 words, excluding references. All proposals must be submitted via the Center’s submission platform.
Grants will support research and convening activities. The funds will cover a wide range of expenses. For example, they might be utilized to:
- Purchase data or computing resources
- Conduct new research
- Travel to archives and/or external academic convenings
- Organize workshops and conferences
- In extraordinary circumstances, provide for a teaching buyout
Collaborators may include other PhD and JSD candidates from all Columbia University schools and affiliates.
Grant funds must be used completely during the 12-month award period (Jan. 1, 2027 to Dec. 31, 2027).
Center Graduate Student Grant Awardees will be required to participate in a gathering of the Graduate Student Grantee cohort once per semester. There will be further opportunities to participate in Center events as well.
In reviewing proposals, Center-affiliated faculty will prioritize collaborative and multidisciplinary projects, those with the potential to break new ground in understanding the intersections of economics and political and social processes in the U.S., and those advancing theoretical, conceptual, and methodological innovation. The Center will have discretion on the final grant amounts awarded.
The funds will be transferred to your academic department through internal transfer for your use. You will need to work with your academic department’s finance office to make use of the funds.
Please send us an email with your question