As part of the Research & Innovation core, the Brody Center is proud to offer three one-year seed grants to Columbia investigators, enabling faculty and early-career researchers to collect preliminary data with priority given to prevention trials, use of innovative statistical methods, and community-based participatory research approaches. The seed grant mechanism is intended to provide early resources for pilot, proof-of-concept projects that lay the foundation for larger, R01-level project submissions. We strongly encourage proposals focused on promoting health equity and/or social justice.

The 2026 Brody Center seed grants will broadly focus on:

1. Prevention-based interventions: develop, pilot, and evaluate upstream interventions targeting the structural, social, and environmental determinants that drive psychiatric distress across the lifecourse.

2. Policy evaluation: examine how laws, regulations, and programmatic reforms affect population mental health outcomes to generate evidence directly actionable for policymakers and advocates.

3. Community-engaged research: partner with communities most affected by mental health disparities to generate locally relevant, actionable evidence that reflects community-defined priorities and builds research capacity.

Additional details for each focus area are outlined below.

• Principal investigator(s) must have a faculty appointment of assistant professor or higher at Columbia University (CU) or Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Faculty of all ranks are eligible to apply.

• Teams may include outside consultants/collaborators (e.g., community stakeholders) with unique experience or expertise in innovative approaches not currently available at Columbia. However, subawards are not permitted.

• During each application cycle, only one submission is permitted per PI per grant mechanism. PIs may be listed as co-investigators or consultants on other applications.

• Awarded principal investigators will be required to submit their protocol to the CU/CUIMC IRB and proof of IRB approval must be sent to Brody Center administrators prior to initiating research activities.

• We strongly encourage proposals focused on promoting health equity and/or social justice.

• Applications are due by April 15th, 2026.

• Successful applicants will be notified by June 2026.

• Funding will begin as early as July 1, 2026. IRB approval is required from the CU/CUIMC IRB and from other relevant IRBs/ethical review boards. Projects should aim to commence within 60 days of award notification.

All guidelines and applicant materials are available here.

1. Before starting the application, query emails are welcome. Pre-submission consultations are available upon request and recommended. Queries and consultation request can be emailed to the Brody Center Director (Katherine Keyes; UNI: kmk2104) and CC the Project Director (Emma Sexton; UNI: els2250).

2. To submit your application, combine the required sections into a single PDF, as follows:

   • Completed Applicant Information Form (available here).

   • Curriculum vitae or NIH biosketch for the PI/MPI(s)

   • Statement of interest (½ page)

   • Study proposal (3 pages max; one-inch margins, Arial size 10 or Times New Roman size 12 font):

     • Abstract (¼ page)

     • Specific aims (¼ page)

     • Rationale, relevance, potential impact of proposed project (including preliminary data if relevant/available) (½ page)

     • Research design and methodology (1 page)

     • Project implementation timeline (¼ page)

     • Anticipated next steps and deliverables (e.g., publications, further studies) (¼ page)

     • How proposed research will provide a basis for larger government or foundation grant funds for the expansion of services, programs, or policies aimed at improving mental health (½ page)

   • Feasibility Statement (½ page): Briefly review team qualifications, institutional/resource capacity, access to study population or data, and/or potential challenges and mitigation strategies to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposal within the study timeline.

   • Completed Budget and Budget Justification Form (available here)

   • Optional: up to two letters of support.

   • If application is being submitted in an mPI format, provide a brief statement (½ page) describing:

     • History of collaboration between the multiple PIs

     • Roles/responsibilities of each PI

   Applications should be submitted electronically to Emma Sexton (UNI: els2250) as a single PDF by 11:59pm on April 15, 2026.

Applications will be reviewed by a committee of Mailman faculty. Seed grant applications will be reviewed using a scoring system based on a 9-point scale (1=highest) to assess the strength of the applications. An Executive Committee comprised of the Brody Center Core faculty will meet and make final funding decisions. Funded applicants will be notified by June 2026 and would begin their projects as early as July 2026, once appropriate approvals are in place (e.g., IRB, if required).