Individual Freedom & Free Markets Funding Area

Individual Freedom & Free Markets Funding Area is sponsored by Templeton World Charity Foundation. Supports education, research, and outreach projects to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship grounded in the ideas of classical liberal political economy.

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تتم ترجمة بعض صفحات الموقع فقط إلى لغتك. الصفحات المتبقية هي باللغة الإنجليزية فقط. Individual Freedom & Free Markets Freedom allows people to build lives of meaning and purpose.

The Individual Freedom & Free Markets Funding Area supports education, research, and outreach projects to promote individual freedom, free markets, free competition, and entrepreneurship grounded in the ideas of classical liberal political economy. Guided by a commitment to the moral equality of all human beings, we seek to advance freedom and human flourishing for all persons.

Whether by academic research, instruction, public outreach, or supporting debate on public policy, our grants contribute toward making the world more just, more prosperous, and more peaceful. The 2026 deadline for submitting OFIs has passed, and new OFI guidance will be issued in 2027. Educational Innovations for Freedom Classical Liberal Ideas for a New Generation: The academy and traditional models of education are changing.

Established methods for imparting knowledge demand new thinking and new complements, and this new generation is hungry for ideas—but ideas once dominant risk appearing irrelevant in the current era. IFFM seeks project proposals for expanding education in classical liberal ideas for this new generation, employing updated methods and reformulating perennial ideas to match the challenges of the times.

Thus, we welcome proposals for: Innovative curricular and pedagogical interventions and resources for students and public in the classical liberal tradition: incorporation of AI and new models of intelligence are welcome, Education of ideas in the classical liberal tradition fitted to the circumstances, histories, needs, and interests of non-Western audiences.

Research at the Vanguard of Freedom Classical Liberal Ideas Confronting the Most Important Challenges and in Conversation with Critics: IFFM seeks proposals for innovative research projects that place the contributions of the classical liberal tradition at the heart of the most important conversations in academic and policy spheres and in dialogue with critics.

We welcome interdisciplinarity and, when appropriate, multi-organizational projects.

Some possible (but not exclusive) topics include: New developments in intelligence : As part of the Foundation’s new Intelligence Venture, we encourage applicants to ask: Are the institutions of classical liberal political economy equipped to confront the challenges of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and potentially vastly new conceptions of social and economic order?

What are the threats to individual freedom that AGI and expanding applications of intelligence represent, and how can freedom be protected? What opportunities for human freedom do these expansions present? How can they be harnessed?

The unity of freedom and freedom for persons : Is there an inherent relationship between economic, political, and civil freedoms, especially considering pressing and contemporary debates and issues? What conception of freedom best reflects the nature of the human person and the possibility of virtue and flourishing (and of cultures supportive of virtue and flourishing)? What institutions protect that freedom?

Are such institutions universally relevant? How and why? Power centralized and decentralized : The traditional dichotomy between “government” and “markets” is breaking down, in part due to technological advances.

Technology is capable of both concentrating power in the hands of a few and devolving power to individuals, communities, and smaller associations to create local solutions to local problems. But can individuals and societies find security, reliability, and comfort in that reality? What are its limits?

Where are the opportunities?

Institutional reform and individual responsibility : Democratic backsliding, illiberal populism, post-constitutionalism, and resurgent socialism and corporatism may be the symptoms of the failures of many complex institutions (schools, religions, governments, the press, civic associations, businesses, etc.) to create the cognitive, emotional, and moral scaffolding supportive of freedom and of facilitating the internalization of externalities, especially in light of new technologies, threats, and landscapes.

But are our institutions up to the task? Additionally, what is the relationship of those institutions to the responsibilities of individuals to bear the consequences of their decisions? New Visions and Transformative Ventures: IFFM is interested in project ideas that challenge conventional paradigms and that break new ground.

“Freedom Catalyst” projects seek to apply the principles of the classical liberal tradition in unexpected but promising ways, nurturing pathways for flourishing by extending the promise of human freedom and ingenuity. This funding category includes civil society ventures that creatively address social challenges while embodying and communicating classical liberal ideals.

Surprise us with a genius idea that promotes individual freedom and free markets. *This year, the John Templeton Foundation—across the organization—is interested in projects that engage the topic of Intelligence (broadly conceived).

If you have a project idea that bears upon the relationship of individual freedom and free markets to intelligence that is not captured in the topics above, please do feel encouraged to submit your OFI on that topic. And, if you believe your OFI bears on that topic, please make sure you indicate that in the OFI portal and in your submission when prompted.

Note that your project idea may fit into more than one category—for example, a research project may also have educational components—but we ask you to select the category that best reflects the dominant feature of your project idea. In your statement of significance, you should indicate which category your proposal best fits and why.

Note, too, that explicit engagement with concepts central to the classical liberal tradition must be central to any project idea—it should not be incidental.

These concepts include, but are not limited to, the following: Free markets and free trade Fundamental freedoms (such as speech, religion, conscience, and press) Private property and freedom of contract Dispersed and local knowledge Limited government (including decentralized authority, polycentrism, the common law and depoliticized law, and/or constitutional limitations on government power) Voluntary associations, civil society, and cooperation Toleration, peace, and non-violent solutions In all cases, and given the crowded marketplace of ideas, we encourage you to include in your OFI an intentional and distinct plan to increase the impact of your project through dissemination and outreach to broad audiences.

Projects that do not show promise to reach beyond small audiences or to engage skeptical and/or nontraditional audiences are less competitive. We do not support any projects that would be considered direct or grassroots lobbying under US law, even if your project is not based in the US or if your project is doing work outside the US. If you have any questions about what constitutes lobbying, please see here .

If you are interested in applying for a grant, please register and submit a Funding Inquiry at the Templeton Portal. Associated Staff: Greg Wolcott; Jessica Despres Is there anything unique about human intelligence? What if the story of intelligence does not culminate with us?

Is the world of intelligences vaster, more varied, and more wonderful than we ever imagined? Might intelligence be written into the fabric of reality itself? Starting in 2026, the John Templeton Foundation will award over $60 million in grants focused on such questions across our six funding areas.

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