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Centers & Institutes

Translating knowledge into action

SIPA’s interdisciplinary research centers serve as hubs of study and innovation, generating new knowledge and convening prominent academics, policymakers, business leaders, and other experts to help translate knowledge into action.

Centers & Institutes

Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP)

How can the living standards of the poor be raised? The Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP) supports microeconomic research to investigate the sources of poverty and to inform practical interventions to address them. CDEP proceeds from the view that we need to understand how markets work—and so often fail to work—in developing-country settings in order to improve the outcomes that they generate for the poor, and supports a range of methodological approaches that share high standards of intellectual rigor and the ultimate goal of reducing poverty.

Center for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP)

The Center for Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP) undertakes original research into the causes of environmental change, the consequences of this change for humanity, and the policies that can prevent and—where possible—reverse harmful environmental change to ensure sustainable development. CEEP’s goal is to share this knowledge with policymakers, fellow researchers, students, and concerned citizens worldwide. A defining feature of the Center's research is the integration of analytic approaches from economics with the natural sciences and engineering.

Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG)

Founded by Jan Svejnar in 2012, the Center on Global Economic Governance (CGEG) is a premier Center for producing a new wave of policy-oriented research on global economic governance, stressing excellence and recognition. In doing so, CGEG brings into sharp focus key issues, sets the highest academic standards in research, and brings together key players from the academic, policy and business world. This approach combines internal and external talent. 

Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP)

The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) develops evidence based research to help address the world’s most challenging energy and climate problems through research, education, and dialogue. It accomplishes this mission by producing best-in-class research, providing a global platform to communicate, and training tomorrow’s leaders and communicators. CGEP provides timely, actionable, independent analysis on the most pressing energy and climate challenges we face. Its team comprises many of the world’s most trusted senior energy experts from government, academia, industry, and nongovernmental organizations. Its programs and Initiatives are designed to address critical needs in key topical areas around energy. And CGEP partners with and supports research across Columbia University’s global network.

Deepak and Neera Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies (CIEP)

The Deepak and Neera Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies promotes economic prosperity in India by improving understanding of the Indian economy through research undertaken by leading scholars; by disseminating this knowledge to practitioners, policy makers, students, and scholars worldwide; and by sustaining ongoing dialogues on major policy issues facing India. The Center’s research also includes comparative analysis of the experience of India and the United States in policy-relevant areas such as climate change and federalism, so as to provide scholarly support for multilateral and bilateral US-India initiatives.

Institute of Global Politics (IGP)

The Institute of Global Politics (IGP) convenes leading scholars and practitioners to advance evidence-based, nonpartisan solutions to SIPA’s five global challenges. The Institute seeks to bridge the gap between the policy and academic arenas by inviting fellows— some of the world’s most distinguished practitioners, activists and thought leaders—to Columbia to collaborate with students and faculty on policy reports and participate in policy labs, workshops and other programming. Embracing a local-to-global approach, IGP aims to provide a forum for open, respectful dialogue across ideological and partisan divides.

Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS)

Founded in 1951 under the sponsorship of Dwight D. Eisenhower during his tenure as president of Columbia University, the Institute was created to promote understanding of the “disastrous consequences of war upon man’s spiritual, intellectual, and material progress.” Since then it has become one of the leading research centers on international relations in the United States. Its researchers have probed the political, military, historical, legal, economic, moral, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of international relations. They also contribute to the general discourse by authoring articles in leading journals, discussing current issues with officials and journalists, serving as consultants to government departments and agencies, and testifying before congressional committees.

Affiliated Centers

Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies

Established in 2001, the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies was created to offer a place for scholars and students to pursue and share research and scholarship on Brazil. The center also attracts Brazilian academics, students, and faculty for periods of up to a year in which they focus on their research, interact with their counterparts at Columbia, as well as speak publicly about their research results. Finally, the center serves as a focal point for American students and faculty with deep interest in, and knowledge of, Brazil.

Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies

The Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies is the foremost academic research center in Iranian studies in the United States with an active publication program. 

Institute on East Central Europe

The Institute on East Central Europe, which was established in 1954 with the aid of the Carnegie Corporation, trains students in the knowledge of peoples and problems of the nations lying between Germany and Russia and between the Balkan and Aegean seas. Renamed the Center on East Central Europe in 1997, it is the oldest academic unit in any major U.S. academic institution to deal exclusively with East Central Europe.

European Institute (EI)

Founded in 1948, the European Institute (EI) is Columbia’s interdisciplinary center for teaching and research on Europe. It takes a continent-wide perspective on the region and its relations with the world. The EI organizes events on and off campus, supports faculty and student research, and manages an MA program in European History, Politics, and Society.

Harriman Institute

The Harriman Institute at Columbia University is one of the world’s leading academic institutions for the study of Russia, Eurasia, and East Central Europe. Our mission is to serve our community at the university and beyond by supporting research, instruction, and dialogue, sponsoring vibrant and multidisciplinary events that bring together our extraordinary resources of faculty, students, and alumni. We are committed to training the next generation of regional specialists to play leadership roles in setting the academic and scholarly agenda, making policy and challenging accepted truths about how we study our rapidly changing world.

Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD)

Founded in July 2000 by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) stimulates a heterodox policy dialogue on major issues in international development. IPD is a global network of leading economists, political scientists, and premier academic and policy centers in the global South and North. IPD brings the issues of developing countries to academics and the fruits of academic research to policymakers.

Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP)

The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) is the research arm of the social sciences at Columbia University. ISERP organizes a vibrant intellectual community at Columbia through its Faculty Fellows program as well as its workshops, conferences, research centers, and projects. Participation in ISERP spans Columbia's social science departments as well as Barnard College, the Columbia Earth Institute, Columbia Teachers College, and the schools of architecture, business, international and public affairs, law, public health, and social work. 

Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR)

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) promotes interdisciplinary human rights research, education, and training at Columbia and overseas. The Institute convenes faculty, students, grassroots activists, policymakers, private sector actors, and other stakeholders from diverse fields and perspectives to interact and address pressing human rights issues. The Institute is particularly committed to the education and training of emerging human rights leaders worldwide.

Institute of African Studies (IAS)

Founded in 1959, the Institute of African Studies (IAS) provides an intellectual forum for Africa-related activities, outside the classroom. It brings speakers and visiting scholars to the campus, organizes conferences, and serves as a resource center for students seeking opportunities to work, study, and travel in Africa. The institute concentrates on sub-Saharan Africa, while North Africa is included in the programs of the Middle East Institute.

Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS)

The Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) is the center for Latin American policy development and research at Columbia University. The institute provides its students and faculty with access to the resources of one of the major policy institutions in the world. ILAS also serves as a focal point for a network of Latin American and U.S. scholars engaged in dialogue on a wide range of issues.

Middle East Institute (MEI)

The Middle East Institute (MEI) of Columbia University, founded in 1954, has helped to set the national pace in developing an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the Middle East, from the rise of Islam to the present, with a primary focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fostering an interregional and multidisciplinary approach to the region, the Institute focuses on the Arab countries, Armenia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Central Asia, and Muslim diaspora communities.

South Asia Institute (SAI)

The South Asia Institute (SAI) coordinates activities at Columbia University that relate to the study of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.  SAI administers the Master of Arts in South Asia Studies, the Certificate Program in South Asia Studies, and the Specialization in South Asia at the School of International and Public Affairs.

Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI)

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) is a hub for the study of modern and contemporary East, Inner, and Southeast Asia at Columbia University. An integrated center for research and teaching, the Institute brings together faculty, research scholars, and students from across the university, and advances knowledge and understanding of the region through academics, research programs, renowned publications series, and a robust calendar of public events.