The Cooper Union Grant Program

The Cooper Union is committed to providing funding for projects that enhance our students’ learning experiences; our faculty’s teaching, scholarship, and practice; new ideas for our future; and opportunities for our community to come together in addressing the critical societal issues of our time through the CU Grant Program.

See the lists of funded projects from previous years:

Grant Application Process

The application for the 2024-2025 academic year program is now closed. The following provides an overview of eligibility, funding availability, selection criteria, selection process, guidelines for submission, and reporting requirements. If you have any questions, please email them to CUGrants@cooper.edu.

Eligibility

Any employee or current student of The Cooper Union can apply for the grant, individually or as part of a team of two or more people. You will be asked to provide the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the person (or people) applying for the grant.

Funding Availability

Applicants may request funds ranging from $500 to $10,000.

Selection Criteria and Application Details

Cooper Union Grant Program projects must advance Cooper Union’s institutional goals and strategic priorities. This year, special consideration is provided to the following types of proposals:

  • Proposals that consider the impact of climate change and investigate solutions.
  • Proposals that involve at least two of our four areas of academic study (architecture, art, engineering, and humanities/social sciences).
  • Proposals for developing or enhancing courses or workshops that are open to all students, regardless of school.
  • Projects that include a making or convening component, with the potential to utilize the AACE Lab or Civic Projects Lab.

You will be asked to provide:

  • A brief summary of the project/program (250 words or less), and a description of how your project satisfies any of the above criteria and what you hope to accomplish as a participant
  • Budget for the entire project, including a basic list of expected expenses
  • Amount you are requesting for funding (which may be the same or less than the budget for the entire project)
  • Description of any facility use requested to complete the project
     

The application must be completed online. Completed applications were due by Friday, May 24.

Selection Process

A review committee (or committees) of faculty, staff, and students will make recommendations to the president and deans, who will consider the recommendations and make the final selections. Reviewers will be selected after proposals are submitted to avoid conflicts of interest. We expect to share decisions by Friday, June 21.

Reporting Requirements

All projects may use the full year for completion and funding (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025). At the end of the project, you will be asked to submit a brief (250 to 500 words) summary or what worked well, what you might do differently next time, the impact that you think the project had, and any next steps that you anticipate or recommend from having completed the project. If the project is more than six months in length, a brief (100-250 words) update on the project mid-way through is due by December 31, 2024.

If you have questions about the process, send an email to CUGrants@cooper.edu

As in previous years, The Cooper Union’s organizational goals and strategic priorities guide the selection process:

Organizational Goals

  • Create an institution of excellence that:
    • Engages students in an academic program that is rigorous, supportive, and dynamic
    • Fosters a culture of curiosity, agency, compassion, and engagement
    • Is tuition-free and financially resilient
  • Prepare students to question and lead in a complex world
  • Develop leading-edge models for higher education that consider the ethical,
  • cultural, and environmental contexts and consequences of technical and creative disciplines
  • Lead by example to promote civil discourse and engagement on important civic issues
  • Advance the fields of Architecture, Art, and Engineering, and foster intersections of study and practice among them

Strategic Priorities

  • Fortify our rigorous professional schools
  • Return Cooper Union to full-tuition scholarships
  • Create opportunities for experimentation at the intersection of disciplines
  • Increase compositional diversity and diversity of thought, background, and experiences
  • Balance budget, build reserves, instill financial discipline
  • Develop programs, activities, and physical space to increase student engagement and improve student, staff, and faculty life
  • Set a leading edge standard for the integration of professional, practice-based education with a humanities and socio-political education
  • Integrate debate, public discourse, and public service orientation into academics, and actively contribute to the betterment of NY
  • Position the Great Hall as a premier forum to advance critical issues of our time

As these goals and priorities were developed, an outpouring of exciting and creative ideas emerged from the faculty, staff, and students of The Cooper Union. Grant support for these ideas launches or propels vital lessons, discoveries, partnerships, and other creative expressions, while providing important experience from the process. The grants have been made possible by generous donors who value and seek to support the bright and inquisitive minds of Cooper’s faculty, staff, and students.

 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.