Caucasus International University promotes the development of fundamental research, for which an internal grant competition has been operating since 2018. According to the requirements of the competition, the research should contribute to scientific, social, economic, cultural, etc. development at the national and/or international level, which is reflected in the evaluation criteria. The competition includes the mandatory condition of deepening cooperation and knowledge transfer with international and local research centers and economic agents to facilitate the integration of teaching, research, and the economy. Academic staff conducting research are actively involved in the academic life of the University at various educational levels, and most of them are Supervisors of PhD research. Each research project has a local and/or international partner with whom an institutional cooperation agreement and/or memorandum of understanding has been signed within the project. In addition, at least one expert or scientist from the partner institution is involved as a Project Consultant.

Aside from that, fundamental research is conducted with funding from the Shota Rustaveli National Scientific Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), which was positively evaluated by the European Scientific Foundation (ESF). The projects are supported by the Caucasus International University. Influential scientists from international research centers and universities are involved in the projects. In 2023, the winning project of the CIU received the highest rating of 49(50) and is one of the leaders among the 439 evaluated projects.

In 2018-2024, 215 publications have been published in international peer-reviewed journals under the affiliation of the university. Of these, 76 publications were published in journals/sources indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science core collection databases, and 139 were published in international peer-reviewed journals indexed in various international databases and/or search engines.

The university is currently conducting 13 ongoing research projects with a total budget of GEL 1,106,800. These projects are being conducted in collaboration with both international and local partners and scientists. Additionally, at this stage, five projects are planned and submitted to international or local donor organization's grant competitions.