Seed Research Grants
The seed research grants are designed to support new, ambitious, and speculative ideas with the objective of getting initial results.
We welcome proposals from the full array of humanistic, social scientific, natural scientific, biomedical, and engineering approaches, including critical, historical, ethnographic, clinical, experimental, and inventive work — from discrete studies and research for book publications to speaker series, system building, and evaluation. This year, we especially aim to fund proposals focused on the domains of discovery, the transformation of education and learning, the societal impact of AI, and the spiritual dimensions of this society-shaping technology.
We especially encourage collaborations between researchers whose work bridges two or more disciplines, as well as proposals that can make a persuasive case that initial results will catalyze further support from internal and external stakeholders.
The 2026 call is now open! We expect to award approximately 25 grants, up to $75,000 each. Visit the Call for Proposals to learn more and apply. Proposals are due by August 18, 2026 at 10:00AM PT. If you have any questions, please contact us at hai-grants@lists.stanford.edu.