Applications will be reviewed annually with a submission deadline of January 15. Final award decisions can be expected within 4-6 weeks of the submission deadline.

Proposals will be reviewed by members of the One-U RAI Faculty Engagement Committee to assess innovation, scholarly merit, likelihood for success, impact, and external funding, and alignment with the mission of the One-U RAI. If human participants or animal research are involved, one copy of the IRB or IACUC approval will be required prior to release of funds.

Successful projects and activities are expected to:

• Have significant scholarly merit and demonstrate innovation in responsible AI,
• Have high potential for future extramural funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, or foundations dedicated to research,
• Not be currently supported by extramural funding, and
• Involve new collaborative teams (either cross-campus or including industry or other community-based partners) and/or support the career development of junior faculty.
• Faculty and staff interested in establishing new relationships for collaboration are invited to email Madeline Burton for ideas on potential collaborators.

Eligibility to submit a proposal is defined by the following criteria:

• Only one proposal per principal investigator (PI) will be reviewed.
• Faculty members (either tenure- or career-line) may serve as co-PIs on multiple proposals.
• PIs must not have a current or recent (past two cycles) One-U RAI seed grant award.
• PIs and Co-PIs must be University of Utah faculty or staff.
• Teams must include an RAI affiliate (i.e., current committee member, faculty fellow, and postdoctoral fellow mentor).

View RAI Affiliates

The following reports are required from all awarded PIs. Templates will be provided.

PIs may also be asked to participate in the preparation of additional reports or presentations.

We anticipate funding up to $225,000 in awards per year and encourage proposals with modest funding requests and high potential impact to maximize the number of projects that can be supported. Typical funding is expected to be less than $50,000 for one year. There will be an opportunity for a one-year no-cost extension.

Seed grant funds may be used for salaries and benefits of non-faculty project personnel, supplies, miscellaneous expenses, and services. Funds cannot be used for faculty salaries, tuition, travel that is not directly related to project research (e.g., conferences cannot be supported by this grant), consultants, or office equipment, including computers (unless specifically justified). Budgets must be submitted using our SeedGrantBudgetTemplate.

Who is considered a current RAI affiliate?

The following are considered RAI affiliates: faculty fellows, mentors of postdoctoral fellows, and members of the RAI Executive and RAI Faculty Engagement Committees.

Must teams include a current RAI affiliate to apply?

Yes. RAI affiliates do not necessarily need to play a prominent role on the team applying, but should be included as a PI or Co-PI on a team. Applications will be reviewed based on the review criteria as stated in the Overview of the Program section of this page, and not the level of engagement of an RAI affiliate. View a list current RAI Affiliates.

Do former RAI affiliates count toward the affiliation requirement?

Only current RAI affiliates count toward the affiliation requirement.

How do I become an RAI affiliate?

A faculty member can become an affiliate by becoming a faculty fellow, mentoring a postdoctoral fellow, or joining a committee (2-year service period). Faculty fellow applications are due annually on October 1; postdoctoral fellow applications every six months on April and October 1; faculty engagement committee membership rotates annually each Spring, and executive committee membership rotates annually each Fall.

One-U RAI Seed Grant funds are eligible to cover faculty course buyouts. However, it is the responsibility of faculty members to acquire formal approval from their home departments.

Your plan should justify your decisions about data sharing, whether you do it or not, and any opportunities you have to share your data.

Seed grant awards will take place annually, beginning in January 2026. One-U RAI programs in operation prior to January 2026 include the faculty fellow, postdoctoral fellow, and distinguished visitor programs. See past One-U RAI news for information about past awardees.

A successful proposal will show a clear path forward for reviewers to see if it’s likely to receive extramural funding while expanding the reach of the One-U RAI across campus.

Unique to this seed grant program, certain activities may not be well aligned with future extramural funding but could still be good candidates to receive funding.

Yes. Collaborative teams, especially new collaborations across departments, are highly valued. A team of four scholars from different departments or colleges may be valued higher than a team of two people within the same field, though this factor is not independent from the rest of the review criteria.