Opportunity: Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence

Sponsor: National Endowment for the Humanities

Amount: Up to $750,000 ($500,000 in outright funds plus up to $250,000 in Federal Matching Funds)

Project period: Up to three years/ 36 months

Internal deadline: 8/10/2025

Description:

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Research is accepting applications for the Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence program. The purpose of this program is to support the establishment of new collaborative humanities research centers focused on gaining a clearer understanding of AI and its implications for the United States. A center is a sustained collaboration among multiple scholars focused on exploring the humanities implications of AI through two or more related scholarly activities.

Harvard University, as a single institution, is limited to submitting one proposal to the NEH. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is facilitating an internal competition and proposal selection.

A center supports collaboration among scholars to explore a specific topic through research, as well as spreading knowledge about that research through educational or outreach activities. Centers may include scholars from diverse disciplines, but must be focused on asking humanities questions and should be led by humanists.

Scholars may come from one or more institutions. NEH welcomes international collaboration, but scholars at U.S. institutions must oversee and set the agenda for the center.

Successful applicants will work to establish a sustainable center and engage in at least two activities that support research into the social and cultural aspects of AI. Appropriate activities may include but are not limited to: collaborative research and writing efforts; workshops and lecture series; education and mentoring; and the creation of digital tools to increase or advance scholarly discourse about AI.

The proposal selected for nomination will be approved conditionally on the basis of further school based acknowledgement and authorization prior to submission to the sponsor. 

Awarded proposals must begin work between 05/01/2026 and 04/01/2027.

For more information and to apply, please click here, https://btly.communityforce.com/4lGZOTE