Schmidt Sciences Opens $800K AI-Humanities Grants, Deadline March 13
March 6, 2026 · 2 min read
Jared Klein
Schmidt Sciences is accepting proposals through March 13 for its Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Virtual Institute, one of the few major grant programs explicitly funding the intersection of AI and humanities scholarship. Awards range from $100,000 to $800,000, and the program is open to universities and nonprofits globally.
Two Funding Tiers for Different Stages
The program operates at two distinct levels. Level I awards ($100,000–$299,999) target new research projects without an established track record — newly formed collaborations, early-stage teams piloting methods, or groups developing prototypes. Level II awards ($300,000–$800,000) fund the scaling of mature projects where applicants can demonstrate results from prior planning or prototyping phases.
Ideal proposals require co-PIs with expertise from both humanities and AI, addressing research questions relevant to both domains. Previous HAVI recipients have spanned historical text analysis, cultural preservation through machine learning, and ethical frameworks for AI development informed by humanistic inquiry. In 2025, Schmidt Sciences awarded $11 million across the program's inaugural cohort, with grants going to teams at Harvard, Princeton, and other institutions.
Why This Matters Beyond Academia
HAVI sits at a strategic inflection point in AI funding. While billions flow into technical AI capabilities — OpenAI alone raised $110 billion last week — comparatively little supports research examining AI's cultural, ethical, and humanistic dimensions. For institutions building interdisciplinary AI programs, a HAVI grant provides not just funding but credibility in a space where humanities departments are often marginalized in the competition for AI resources.
The March 13 deadline at 11:59 PM EDT is firm. Applicants should already have their partnership structures defined and research questions articulated. Those searching for collaborative AI funding opportunities, including upcoming federal and foundation programs, can explore current listings on Granted, where analysis of AI grant trends is available on the blog.