Call for HAI-Hoover TPA Seed Grants on AI and Geopolitics

Call for HAI-Hoover TPA Seed Grants on AI and Geopolitics

The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and Data Science  (HAI) and  the Hoover Institution’s Technology Policy Accelerator (TPA) are jointly releasing a call for seed grant funding focused on AI and Geopolitics. Stanford PIs are invited to submit proposals. We welcome proposals for research projects that tackle important  challenges and opportunities in this space from either a technical or social science perspective, with findings that can generate policy insights and recommendations. Proposals must come from interdisciplinary teams reflecting at least one co-PI from the humanities or social sciences with at least one co-PI from a technical field. 

Award funds may be used for relevant expenses, including survey costs, compute, and research materials; undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral researcher support; convenings; and faculty time. We seek proposals that support new and ambitious ideas with the objective of getting initial research results and outputs that speak to policymakers. Funded projects will receive support from policy staff at both HAI and TPA to disseminate research findings to policy audiences. 

We expect to award a number of seed grants for a one-year period in two categories: 1) small grants, for up to $25,000 each; 2) larger grants, for up to $100,000 each. 

Priority Areas

We are seeking research projects that tackle an issue or question that policymakers are either grappling with or have not yet considered but should.  We welcome  a wide array of approaches that use AI as a tool for addressing geopolitical challenges or that take AI as the subject of inquiry. Projects, for example, could provide a new technical approach to addressing an important geopolitical challenge (e.g., how to use AI to improve global monitoring of sanctions evasion, terrorist threats, or illicit nuclear activities). Or projects could take the geopolitical opportunities and challenges of AI as the subject of study (e.g., by examining how to better assess the performance of export controls, the success or otherwise of sovereign AI implementations,  or the performance of AI models with geopolitical competition in mind).  All proposals should generate original data or novel capabilities; rigorously consider alternative approaches, hypotheses, and perspectives;  and develop  actionable  recommendations. Preference will be given to projects that can be completed within 9-12 months. 

Eligibility 

• Each proposal must be led by at least one Stanford faculty, fellow, or researcher who qualifies as a Principal Investigator (PI) according to the Stanford University Research Policy Handbook. 
• Each proposal must have at least one lead from a social science or humanities field and one from a technical field. 
• Each proposal must include a plan for the production of at least one scholarly article as well as an accompanying policymaker-focused research product (e.g., policy brief, white paper, op-ed) to be developed with assistance from HAI staff. 
• Applicants must be willing to present the results of their work at future HAI and Hoover Institution events.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals are due on May 1, 2026. Proposals will be reviewed for merit and alignment with the call. Finalists will be asked to complete an Ethics and Society Review. Award recipients will be notified by July 1, 2026. Please submit using the Apply button on this webpage.

The proposal (no longer than 3 pages, excluding references, PDF, single-spaced, 12 point, 1 inch margins) should include the below components.

Key Components

• Background and problem statement
  • Your core research idea or question.
  • How your research project or question advances understanding compared to  existing methods/applications.
  • Detailed technical problem solving approach or research design. 
  • Policy importance of your project and anticipated implications.
• Team involved (faculty, fellows, postdocs, staff, and/or students as appropriate)
• Requested funding and associated sketch budget (e.g., “25% RA 2qtrs: $18K; fieldwork travel $3K, equipment: $4K, 8% infrastructure charge). Note, the 8% infrastructure charge should be included within the budget. 
• Ethics and Society Review (ESR) statement: Please provide an ESR statement of 1-3 paragraphs. Your ethics review statement should address the potential ethical challenges or dilemmas your work seeks to address as well as the potential ethical implications that could follow from your work. As part of the ESR process, our reviewers may ask for more detail from finalists.

Additional Pages
References (no max or min limits, at the end of the PDF file)

Requirements of Awardees

Awardees will be required to submit a brief interim grant report six months through their grant period and a final grant report no more than one month after the completion of their grant.

Awardees  will be asked to present the results of their work to at least one HAI or Hoover Institution event during or shortly after the grant period.

Awardees are expected to produce at least one academic publication derived from the grant, and one policy-oriented publication, such as a policy brief. HAI Policy staff can provide support on preparing a policy brief.