Frontiers in Data Science and AI is a university-wide initiative that surfaces emerging research questions meant to spark topical exchanges across disciplines. 

Each year, the executive committee of the Data Science Institute identifies a set of timely, yet broad, themes at the edge of what data science and AI can currently address and issues a request for proposals (RFP). The Institute supports faculty-designed and led programming — symposia, panels, workshops and other experimental formats — that cut across disciplines and bring new intellectual combinations together.

Themes are broad by design with the intention to solicit proposals from a wide array of disciplines. The goal is to foster collaboration and intellectual exchange across Columbia’s community as they consider how data science and AI are transforming their fields. DSI envisions creating conditions for new research collaborations through this initiative – by lowering friction for convening, providing backing for exploratory ideas, and making visible the questions that no single department or researcher is positioned to address alone.

New Themes for 2027

New Questions. New Collaborators. New Fields.

DSI is currently welcoming proposals around two new themes: The Future of Evidence in the Age of AI and The Algorithmic City. Applicants are encouraged to frame ideas broadly, and view the themes below as starting points rather than constraints. Sign up here to be notified when the RFP is released.

The Future of Evidence in the Age of AI

AI is reshaping how evidence is produced, interpreted, and contested, making it easier to identify patterns and generate claims from large datasets while also enabling new forms of fabrication and forgery at scale. The Future of Evidence explores how these shifts challenge established ideas of authenticity, provenance, and verification, even as they expand the possibilities around new ways of knowing. This theme invites exploration into how evidence functions across fields — from science and medicine to law, journalism, history, and the arts — and how AI is transforming it. It also surfaces questions of what standards, institutions, or mechanisms can help to sustain credible knowledge while preserving openness and free expression.

The Algorithmic City

AI is increasingly shaping how cities function and how urban life is experienced—from infrastructure and services to everyday movement and interaction. The Algorithmic City examines how these systems are embedded across streets, neighborhoods, and regions, and asks how they will reshape urban life. It raises key questions about governance and accountability at different scales, the digital and physical infrastructures required to support AI-enabled systems, and how their impacts — social, environmental, and economic — will be managed. The theme also explores how data is collected, shared, and contested across public and private actors, and how civic AI can be designed to reflect democratic values, including the role of citizens in shaping and challenging algorithmic decision-making.

How DSI Supports Frontiers in Data Science and AI

Programming

DSI will support a wide array of programming proposed by faculty including symposia, workshops, panels, hackathons or other faculty-designed events. DSI will also leverage its broad network of affiliated faculty to support awardees in developing interdisciplinary collaborations, refining program concepts, and connecting with potential collaborators outside their immediate domains.

Funding

Up to $25,000 in direct funding support is available, depending on program type and complexity, to help launch new intellectual exchanges and convenings.

In-Kind Support

We will provide logistical support for events and communications to awardees. DSI’s interdisciplinary network across all of Columbia’s schools will be deployed to enhance program visibility and connection with interested faculty and students across the University. 

The Frontiers RFP Process

The RFP is issued one term in advance of planned programming to allow sufficient time for faculty to organize their programs. Please note that themes run through a calendar year instead of an academic year. Early this summer we will be releasing the complete RFP for 2027, with proposals due in late September. 

Who Should Propose

Frontiers is open to Columbia faculty and research scientists with an idea that crosses fields, tests something new, or convenes people around a challenge that data science and AI are uniquely positioned to address.