AI and Humanity: New Internal Funding Opportunities for scholarship and research

Hi everyone,

I hope that you all enjoyed commencement and are ready for a productive and fun summer!
Please forward the following information to your faculty.
The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce a series of pilot initiatives to promote cross-campus collaborative research, scholarship, creative work, and community partnerships to identify and address pressing issues related to the ethical, policy, and cultural impacts of AI and related emerging technologies.  

Pilot Research Grants: Support (up to $20,000) for conceptual and empirical research, scholarship, and creative works that deepens understanding of the risks, rewards, challenges and impact associated with artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, and that guides their use toward communal wellbeing and self-understanding. For more information and to apply, click here. Priority Application Deadline: July 1, 2026. 

Faculty Working Groups: To build intellectual, scholarly, and creative capacity at WFU to examine and respond to the ethical, legal/policy, and societal and cultural impacts of AI and related emerging technologies on human identity, health, and societal well-being, support is available for groups of four to eight faculty to collaborate on one or more specific projects. For more information and to apply, click here. Application Deadline: September 14, 2026.

Teacher-Scholar Apprenticeship Grants: The Teacher-Scholar Apprenticeship Grant provides funding (up to $6,000) for faculty-led projects that pair meaningful faculty research, scholarship, or creative work with substantive mentorship opportunities for full-time Wake Forest University students. For more information and to apply, click here. Application Deadline: September 8, 2026.

These new pilot programs will be run by Ana Iltis with support from Christine Coughlin, Ryan Shirey and William Cochran. Please contact them with any specific questions.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Happy summer!

William Fleeson
Special Advisor for Artificial Intelligence to the Provost

Kim McAllister
Vice Provost for Research, Scholarly Inquiry and Creative Activity

[Message to WFU Research Google Group]