Professional Development Scholarships

SHARP Training Scholarship Awards for Career Development

Jump to: Overview | Award | Eligibility | Available Scholarships | Apply | Contact

Overview

The SHARP Training Program offers cutting-edge trainings for researchers and investigators at all career stages, enabling them to incorporate new knowledge, methods, and tools into today's fast-paced, ever-evolving health and research fields.

The primary audience for SHARP trainings is biomedical researchers with advanced degrees who are currently working in professional research settings. Our professional development scholarships provide opportunities for individuals with the potential to shape the future of health and research through powerful and innovative techniques. These awards increase accessibility and participation of researchers and professionals to learn in-demand field methods, particularly those in the early stages of their career.

The summer portion of the training program offers a limited number of professional development scholarships for eligible candidates -from any domestic or international institution- to cover a portion of their registration fees.

Award

Awards for summer trainings (May – August) are granted based on scientific merit, demonstrated financial need, and the applicant's potential to increase the diversity of training participation. Priority is given to individuals in the early stages of their careers, particularly those from underrepresented groups and those who would otherwise be unable, or less likely, to attend.

Each award covers 50% of the registration course fee. In rare situations, some full-coverage (100%) awards are issued due to extenuating circumstances of an applicant or if additional funding has been donated to the scholarship program. Awards do not cover travel or accommodation costs, if applicable. The award is provided in the form of a registration code used during online registration to waive 50% of the training fee.

Eligibility

• We welcome applications from individuals affiliated with any organization who meet one or more of the following criteria:
  • 1) early-career investigators with doctoral degrees (e.g. postdoctoral fellows/researchers, early-career faculty within 5 years of first faculty appointment) AND
  • 2) early-career professionals with equivalent work experience to an advanced degree AND
  • 3) experienced faculty and research professionals with 5+ years of experience who have been impacted by the current research funding landscape. 
• Candidates from any domestic/international organization are welcome to apply, and we particularly encourage underrepresented minorities and international trainees from outside the U.S. to apply.
• Ineligible applicants:
  • Students (undergrad and graduate) are not eligible for SHARP scholarships.
  • Prior scholarship awardees who have received a SHARP scholarship in the last three years are not eligible (e.g. individuals who received an award between 2023-2025 for any SHARP training are not eligible for 2026 scholarships). 
• Application limits:
  • Applicants may submit only one application per annual cycle. 
  • Within the application, applicants may list up to two SHARP trainings, however, awards are limited to one per individual.
  • Columbia employees are eligible to apply, but scholarship awards cannot be combined with the Columbia employee discount. In general, scholarship awards cannot be combined with any type of discount except early-bird pricing.

Available 2026 Scholarships

The application period for 2026 scholarships will open in January. Available scholarships will be announced at that time, but will be comparable to the 2025 list below. 

The following trainings offer scholarships, with the number of awards depending on available funding and training capacity. Click on a training title below to learn more about a specific training. To apply for a scholarship, review the process outlined in the 'Apply' section of this page.

There are over 50 total scholarships available program-wide, with at least one scholarship available for each of the following 2025 trainings:

• Bayesian Modeling for Environmental Health Workshop
• Causal Mediation Analysis Training
• Climate Change and Health Boot Camp
• Code Rigor and Reproducibility with R Boot Camp
• Creating Compelling Scientific Narrative Workshop
• Data, Designed Workshop
• Electronic Medical Records Boot Camp
• Environmental Mixtures Workshop
• Epigenetics Boot Camp
• Exposome Boot Camp
• GIS Workshop
• Google Earth Engine Boot Camp
• K Awards Training
• Machine Learning Boot Camp
• Mendelian Randomization Boot Camp
• Microbiome Boot Camp
• Multi-omics Boot Camp
• NIH Grant Writing Boot Camp
• PI Crash Course
• PI's Business of Research Boot Camp
• Powerful Presentations Workshop
• Python Data Wrangling Boot Camp
• Quantitative Genomics Training
• Scientist and the Storyteller Workshop
• Single Cell Analysis Boot Camp
• SQL Boot Camp
• Statistical Analysis with Missing Data Workshop

Apply

Please read the following instructions carefully before submitting your application. Only completed applications and PDF recommendation letters submitted by the deadline will be reviewed. Late submissions, or documents in other formats will not be accepted or reviewed. 

Application instructions:

1. Confirm your eligibility before applying.
2. Fill out all required fields of the application form linked below, including:
   • Your current status (e.g., institution, number of years in the current program, etc.)
   • Your field of interest and future career plans
   • Description of how the award will help you with your career plans
   • Financial need
   • Identification in underrepresented groups
   • Contact information for your mentor/Chair to submit a recommendation letter
   • Any information that you feel is relevant to the Committee's decision
3. Recommendaton Letter Submission
   • Immediately upon submitting your application, your mentor or Department Chair will receive an automatic email notification (using the details provided on the application) with a link for them to upload a single PDF recommendation letter before the submission deadline.
   • It is the Applicant's responsibility to confirm that the letter has been submitted. Due to the high volume of submissions, the Program Committee will not contact mentors or Chairs to request letters on your behalf. 
   • A confirmation email is sent to both the applicant and the mentor/Chair once the letter is received. Applicants may also verify receipt by emailing ColumbiaSHARP.Scholarships@gmail.com. 
   • The recommendation letter must:
     • Confirm that the applicant is in good standing at the time of application submission
     • Describe how the applicant will benefit from attending the training (include the second SHARP training if applicable)
     • Explain why the applicant is in need of the award and whether there is funding available to cover the remaining expenses not covered by the scholarship award. 
4. Review and Notification: The program subcommittee reviews applications, selects awardees, and notifies all applicants and awardees by early April.

The application period for 2026 scholarships will open in January. 

Contact

All questions should be directed to ColumbiaSHARP.Scholarships@gmail.com.

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