Intercampus Grants and Funding

The Academic Integration program provides grants for collaborative work between the Ithaca and New York City campuses (Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech) that promise to advance research and discovery across the Cornell community.

One Cornell: Conversations in Intercampus Research

View the RFA
Inquiries: Paula Cohen | paula.cohen@cornell.edu

Harnessing the rich and varied expertise of colleagues in both Ithaca and New York City amplifies Cornell University’s research activities, elevating their impact and strength. Collaborative endeavors among Cornell's researchers not only synchronize scientific and educational initiatives across the wider Cornell community but also fosters enhanced research and educational prospects. This, in turn, nurtures the evolution of individual endeavors into expansive programs with heightened impact and visibility.

This initiative is crafted to support events or activities that ignite collaborative ventures spanning the Ithaca and New York City campuses by acquainting faculty, students, and postdoctoral researchers from remote campuses around a common scientific theme, facilitating the sharing of recent findings and discussions on emerging research areas.

Multi-Investigator Seed Grant

The Multi-Investigator Seed Grant opportunity is closed at this time.
Inquiries: Molly Towne | mas357@cornell.edu

The Academic Integration program aims to advance the research and discovery efforts across the Cornell community by promoting and enhancing collaborations between the Cornell Ithaca campus, and the Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) and Cornell Tech campuses in New York City. By drawing on the outstanding and diverse work of Cornell colleagues based in Ithaca and New York City, the strength and impact of research across Cornell will be elevated to the next level of eminence. Fostering such collaborative interactions between research units will leverage expertise across the three campuses to align the scientific and educational activities of the greater Cornell community, resulting in improved research and training opportunities. Creating synergies among Cornell investigators will also enable laboratories to transform individual projects to larger programs with increased impact and visibility.  This program supports faculty interested in building intercampus programs aimed, in particular at achieving extramural support from foundations or federal granting agencies.

Research funding agencies support a range of mechanisms for programmatic science. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports life-science oriented multi-investigator projects known as multi-PI RO1s as well as larger center grants designated as P30s, P50s, or P60s, and U19s and U54s. The National Science Foundation awards centers in areas such as Engineering Research, Physics, Science & Technology, Computing, many of which with a focus on convergent research. The Department of Energy funds Energy Frontier Research Centers, centers focused on quantum science, computational materials, solar fuels, bioenergy, and cybersecurity and the Department of Defense funds MURIs with their own specific requirements. Beyond these agencies, the Multi Investigator Seed Grant program will consider support aimed at submission of proposals for other large grants, for example from the Department of Homeland Security, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Transportation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Education, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

In general, these award programs require applicants to present a combination of basic, applied, translational, and, in some cases clinical, research programs for review, emphasizing the importance of leveraging strengths across our campuses to make Cornell even more competitive for these funding mechanisms. Importantly, beyond additional funding sources, large program grants provide recipients with flexible resources for research cores/shared facilities and administrative costs—critical research components that are difficult to fund through other mechanisms. Center grants also provide an outstanding mechanism to build synergies among investigators, bring scientists together from different disciplines centered around a common theme, and attract the best trainees. When these programs work optimally, the result is truly a sum that is greater than the component parts.

Securing additional large grants in the disciplines covered at our three campuses would not only provide our faculty with important sources of funding and opportunities to build synergies but will also add stature to our institution. This is especially important for the translational centers at WCM, as each focuses on a domain important to the NIH and the mission of each fits well into a Center of Excellence. In addition, programs that incorporate proposals from innovative investigators from Cornell Tech and the Ithaca campus in underrepresented areas at WCM will enrich the environment for discovery on all three campuses and provide a competitive edge to proposals submitted to funding agencies.

During open calls applicants are able to choose from one of two tracks:

  • Track 1: Proposals describing synergistic programs involving at least four PIs/co-PIs, each with individual projects, coalescing for submission of a NIH program project grant, NSF center grant, or a similar type of center grant within a two-year period. Awarded up to $100,000.
  • Track 2: Proposals involving at least two PIs/co-PIs aiming to submit a collaborative grant (such as a multi-investigator R01, NSF standard grant or similar) within a year of receiving pilot grant support. Awarded up to $75,000.

Intercampus Research Symposia Grant

The Intercampus Research Symposia Grant opportunity is closed at this time.
Inquiries: Molly Towne | mas357@cornell.edu

Intercampus research symposia acquaint faculty, students, and postdocs from our Ithaca and New York City campuses with each other around a scientific theme, share recent findings, and brainstorm ways to use what is learned at the symposia to jumpstart collaborative projects across our campuses. Through the Intercampus Research Symposia Grant, the Academic Integration program aims to:

  • Better inform the Cornell research community (both faculty and students) about the diverse ongoing research efforts on the Ithaca and NYC campuses.
  • Stimulate discussions about potential novel intercampus collaborations by enabling face-to-face interactions.
  • Kindle new and expanded research collaborations among the campuses.
  • Identify tangible next steps toward building integrated research programs.
  • Help faculty prepare to respond to future internal and extramural RFAs for collaborative research grants.

Intercampus Travel Grant for Trainees

Doctoral students who plan to travel between Ithaca and NYC campuses to conduct research, including dissertation research, may apply for a Campus-to-Campus travel grants worth $150, the cost of a round trip C2C bus ticket. Applicants must complete the application form and include a 1-page summary of the relevant research activity to apply. Recipients will receive an award code that can be used to purchase tickets on the Campus-to-Campus bus. See the application form for more information about eligibility requirements and instructions. This is a pilot program and funding is limited so don’t wait to apply! 

This program is sponsored by the Office of Academic Integration and administered by both the Cornell Graduate School and the Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine in NYC.