Competition

* Unless explicitly noted, all times indicated for deadlines are for the appropriate NL timezone (NST or NDT)

Schmidt Sciences is requesting proposals to the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI), aimed at fostering research in the digital humanities with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. Ideal projects will have co-PIs with expertises from both the humanities and AI and will address research questions from both domains. This request is open to universities and non-profits globally.

Informational Webinars:

January 20, 2026, 1PM EST. Register here.

February 24, 2026, 1PM EST. Register here.

What is HAVI?

Schmidt Sciences’ Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Virtual Institute (HAVI) is a philanthropic initiative which intends to spur innovative, domain-specific research outcomes from humanities scholars through the integral application of AI-inspired tools and techniques as well as produce insights from the humanities that will advance the development of AI.

Current AI models struggle with multilingual contexts, multimodal datasets, and the nuances of historical and cultural diversity, hindering their application in humanities disciplines. HAVI aims to address these limitations by fostering interdisciplinary collaborations between AI and humanities researchers, focused on developing and applying new AI techniques to answer complex and compelling humanities research questions.

Our approach expects humanities scholars to play integral roles in AI development, while AI researchers gain deeper understanding of data, models, and problem spaces from humanistic perspectives. This collaborative framework aims to produce breakthrough results that advance both AI capabilities and humanities scholarship.

Funding Levels

Applicants can apply for one of two funding levels:

Level I: $100,000 - $299,999

This level is aimed at new research projects without an established record of past success. It could be newly established collaborations or established teams, but the research is in an early stage. Activities at this Level I stage might include things like piloting new methods or developing prototypes. A successfully completed Level I project could be a candidate for future Level II funding.

Level II: $300,000 - $800,000

This level is aimed at scaling up and expanding mature projects. Applicants should be prepared to discuss the results of a previous planning or prototyping stage and how further funding will enable their project to reach its intended goals. (Note that Level II applicants do not have to have previous Level I funding from HAVI; but they should be able to demonstrate results from earlier stages of their research.)

What is a Humanities Research Question? Traditional Research vs.Tools/Methods/Infrastructure Research 

Many humanities grant programs do not allow for research that focuses largely on developing new tools, methods, instruments, or infrastructure. HAVI, however, welcomes such projects.

When describing your humanities research questions, you may focus on “traditional” humanities questions (e.g. “how did food shortages during the U.S. Civil War influence the food culture for people in the South?”) or on “methodological” ones (e.g. “can we develop a new kind of sensor that uses AI that will help archaeologists determine where to dig?”) Many projects will pose both kinds of questions.

Projects whose primary research question is about developing tools or methods should make a strong case for why this tool is needed and how it will benefit the humanities and enable scholars to address more traditional research questions. The team should be well-suited to take on the proposed research, possessing the relevant domain and technical expertise in both the humanities and computer science fields. Applicants are encouraged to include clear test cases for any tools/methods they are developing.

In addition to the external funding agency’s submission procedures, this opportunity must also be submitted for Departmental, HSS Faculty, and Research Initiatives and Services (RIS) institutional reviews and approvals via Memorial's Researcher Portal (RP). In order to facilitate the HSS Faculty’s administrative review, please ensure "Heather C. O'Brien (Grants Facilitator)" and “Matthew Milner (Grants Facilitator)” are added as "Team Members" on your RP file. 

In accordance with University-wide approval protocols, all tabs of the RP file must be completed, the completed application must be uploaded to the “Attachments” tab, all supporting documentation including support for cash and in-kind commitments and/or letters of support must also be uploaded, and “Submit” must be pressed prior to the HSS internal deadline listed below. HSS cannot guarantee completion of an administrative review for application files that are incomplete and/or are submitted after the HSS deadline. For more detailed submission instructions and information, please consult the HSS Research Support Services website.

If you plan to apply to this competition or other research funding opportunities (as either PI or CI), e-mail an HSS Grants Facilitator, Heather C. O’Brien (HSSResearchAdmin@mun.ca or 864-8603) or Matthew Milner (HSSResearchGrants@mun.ca or 864-8050), to notify the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of your intent to apply. E-mailing the intent to apply as early as possible will help to facilitate an efficient review. A Grants Facilitator can answer any questions you may have about internal or external submission procedures and may also be able to help with proposal development.