CELSS Call for Spring Proposal
C.E.L.S.S.
COLUMBIA EXPERIMENTAL LABORATORY IN T H E SOCIAL SCIENCES
CELSS Grants for Graduate Students’ Dissertation Chapters
The Columbia Experimental Laboratory in the Social Sciences (CELSS) provides funding to support
PhD dissertation chapters that utilize experimental data. Applications are accepted both for studies
conducted in the lab and for studies conducted online.
The maximum budget is $3,000. Higher requests may be considered only in exceptional circumstances.
Eligibility
The funds are restricted to doctoral students who have previously obtained a graduate student seed
grant from CELSS and can demonstrate that the project has high probability of becoming part of their
dissertations. Applicants must show a good faith effort of obtaining funding from external sources. In
addition, the proposal must have been presented at a workshop or colloquium with some faculty
presence (for example, in the Economics department: a field colloquium, the Cognition and Decision
Lab meeting, or the Experimental Lunch).
Applicants must be advanced doctoral students at Columbia in Economics, Political Science, SIPA, the
Business School, or in a department affiliated with ISERP.
Application
The deadline for Spring 2018 applications is April 15, 2018.
Later applications may be considered on a rolling basis, depending on funds’ availability.
The application must include: (1) a cover letter; (2) a paper or presentation slides summarizing the
results from the initial CELSS grant; (3) the budget; (4) the applicant’s cv; (5) the endorsement of the
student’s thesis adviser; (6) the name of the workshop or colloquium where the proposal has been
presented.
The cover letter (maximum 2 pages) should outline briefly the basic rationale of the research, the
question under study, and the experimental procedures. Please note that the length constraint will be
enforced strictly.
The endorsement of the thesis adviser can be an email to the CELSS director (celssdirector@
columbia.edu). The adviser needs to state explicitly that he/she (1) is familiar with the work
done so far, (2) is confident that the project can produce a high quality dissertation chapter; (3) will be
responsible for following the progress of the project.
The applicant should submit the items mentioned above in electronic form in a single compressed
folder, and send the application to the CELSS manager, at celss-manager@columbia.edu. The title of
the e-mail should be “Application for CELSS Funding; Dissertations” and the name of the compressed
file should be “LastnameFirstname_CelssFundingApp”.
Note: Unless part of a class, any experiment run at CELSS or with financial support from CELSS
requires approval by the Institutional Review Board (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/irb/) and the respect
of CELSS rules (http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/celss/researchers/). Failure to comply with IRB and
CELSS rules will result in the withdrawal of the grant.
The funding allocation expires at the end of the second semester following the grant (here: June 2019).
Unused funds will be reappropriated by CELSS.
CELSS Seed Grants for Untenured Faculty
The Columbia Experimental Laboratory in the Social Sciences (CELSS) announces a call for proposals
projects targeted to untenured faculty members for seed grants for experimental projects.
Applications are accepted both for studies conducted in the lab and for studies conducted online.
Maximum amount: $5,000/grant.
Application
The deadline for Spring 2018 applications is April 15, 2018.
Later applications may be considered on a rolling basis, depending on funds’ availability.
Applications will be evaluated competitively by a committee of referees.
The application must include: (1) the proposal; (2) the budget; (3) the applicant’s cv; (4) a
statement detailing additional sources of funding for the project. The proposal should outline
briefly the question under study, the experimental procedures, and the reasons why the project is
expected to result into a broader research program and outside grant. Its maximum length is 2,000
words, excluding bibliography.
The explicit involvement of one or more graduate students, identified by name, will be considered
an asset to the proposal.
The application should be submitted in electronic form to celss-director@columbia.edu.
Eligibility
Applicants must be untenured faculty at Columbia in Economics, Political Science, SIPA, the
Business School, or a department affiliated with ISERP.
Note:
1. Unless part of a class, any experiment run at CELSS or with financial support from CELSS
requires approval by the Institutional Review Board (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/irb/) and the
respect of CELSS rules (http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/celss/researchers/).
2. The funding allocation expires at the end of the second semester following the grant (here: June
2019). Unused funds will be reappropriated by CELSS.
Requests for clarification
Questions concerning this call for proposal and the use of the lab can be addressed to the CELSS
manager, at celss-manager@columbia.edu, or to the CELSS director at celss-director@columbia.edu.
CELSS Grants for Graduate Students’ Experimental Projects
The Columbia Experimental Laboratory in the Social Sciences (CELSS) provides funding to support
promising experimental projects by graduate students. Applications are accepted both for studies
conducted in the lab and for studies conducted online.
Note: Unless part of a class, any experiment run at CELSS or with financial support from CELSS
requires approval by the Institutional Review Board (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/irb/) and the
respect of CELSS rules (http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/celss/researchers/). Failure to comply with
IRB and CELSS rules will result in the withdrawal of the grant.
Application
The deadline for Spring 2018 applications is April 15, 2018.
Later applications may be considered on a rolling basis, depending on funds’ availability.
The application must include: (1) the proposal; (2) the budget; (3) the applicant’s cv; (4) the
endorsement of a faculty advisor. Applications will be evaluated competitively by a committee of
referees.
The proposal should outline briefly the basic rationale of the research, the question under study,
the relevance of an experiment to the project, and the experimental procedures. Its maximum length
is 1,500 words, excluding bibliography. Please note that longer proposals will not be considered.
The maximum budget is $1,000. However, if the application concerns a brand new experimental
project, it is strongly recommended to apply for a seed grant of $500 or less for running a pilot
experiment. Upon successful completion of the pilot, a summary of preliminary results and a new
budget can be submitted requesting an additional $500. The bulk of the budget should be payments to
experimental subjects, in line with the guidelines in Orsee. Additional miscellaneous expenses
linked to the experiment, such as printing, can be included. Exceptions to the $1,000 limit can be
requested but must be strongly motivated and have low probability of acceptance. The committee
retains the discretion to allocate fewer funds than requested. Note: The funding allocation expires
at the end of the second semester following the grant (here: June 2019). Unused funds will be
reappropriated by CELSS.
The endorsement of a faculty advisor can be a short email to the CELSS director (celss-
director@columbia.edu). The advisor needs to state explicitly that he/she will be responsible for
following the progress of the project.
The applicant should submit the items mentioned above in electronic form in a single compressed
folder, and send the application to the CELSS manager, at celss-manager@columbia.edu. The title of
the e-mail should be “Application for CELSS Funding” and the name of the compressed file should be
“LastnameFirstname_CelssFundingApp”.
Eligibility
Applicants must be advanced doctoral students at Columbia in Economics, Political Science, SIPA,
the Business School, or in a department affiliated with ISERP.
Requests for clarification
Questions concerning this call for proposal and the use of the lab can be addressed to the CELSS
manager, at celss-manager@columbia.edu, or to the CELSS director at celss-director@columbia.edu.