Data, AI, and Community Research Grant Program

Three Centers/Institutes at Tulane University, the Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science (CAIDS), the Center for Community-Engaged Artificial Intelligence (CEAI), and the Center for Public Service (CPS), are offering opportunities for grant funding up to $10,000. These grants support research projects involving data science, and/or artificial intelligence (or impacts of AI), and/or community-engaged research or projects. Projects that meet multiple criteria are prioritized. 

Submission Deadline: May 4, 2025 at 11:59pm.

If you have questions about the applications, please email Joey Couvillon at acouvil@tulane.edu. For questions about community-engagement, please contact Lucas Diaz at ldiaz5@tulane.edu.

Apply Here

Eligibility - Who Can Apply?

  • Full-time Tulane Faculty: tenure-track, professors of practice, administrative faculty, clinical professors, research professors, and equivalents, but excluding adjunct and visiting professors;
  • Post-doctoral scholars;
  • Advanced graduate students enrolled in Tulane PhD, masters, and other doctoral programs;
    • To be eligible, graduate students must focus on or use data in their dissertations (or the equivalent), thesis, or capstone project and meet the following criteria:
      • Doctoral students must have advanced to doctoral candidacy, scheduled to defend their dissertation prospectus by Spring 2025, or have completed all course work and begun research for their dissertation (or the equivalent).
      • Master students must be registered for a thesis or capstone in Fall 2025.

Funding Criteria by Center

Below is a description of the criteria used by each funder. Applicants should meet the criteria of at least one funder to apply, but they do not need to meet the criteria of all three funders. Projects that meet the community engagement requirement, detailed below, are eligible for funding from CPS, and also CAIDS (if the data requirement, detailed below, is met) and CEAI (if the AI requirement is met). Projects that do not meet the community engagement requirement are only eligible for funding from CAIDS, and only if the data requirement is met.

Community Engaged Artificial Intelligence

CEAI supports community-engaged research (defined in detail below) that involves AI. AI includes, but is not limited to:

  • theoretical and technical research into the methodology of AI;
  • applications of AI to research on a socio-economic community, or health questions; or
  • data-driven research on the effects of AI.

Center for Public Service

CPS funds faculty and post-doc research, artistic, or other projects that are community-engaged (defined in detail below). Projects by faculty and post-docs are eligible for up to $10,000, and projects by graduate students are eligible for up to $1,500, with additional funding possible from CAIDS or CEAI (for up to $10,000), if the project meets their criteria.

Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science

CAIDS funds data-focused research, including not only quantitative data but also qualitative data, such as data obtained from interviews, oral histories, and primary source documents. Scholars from all fields are encouraged to apply. CAIDS prioritizes research that:

  • Broadens participation in data science, including funding student research assistants;
  • Faces a financial barrier to collecting or analyzing data;
  • Addresses their upcoming annual data theme, "Data (Mis)Information," which seeks to highlight how data can be used correctly or incorrectly to inform decision-making;
  • Will be used as a proof-of-concept, preliminary, or pilot results that will be used to apply for an external grant;
  • Incorporates AI;
  • Is community-engaged.

Required Application Documents

Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

  • Short statements on how the research or project fits with each of the above criteria, as relevant.
  • Proposal: Two (2) pages, plus up to two (2) additional pages describing the community engagement, if applicable)
  • Budget (up to $10,000), with brief justification and explanation
  • CV or bio sketch
  • For community engaged projects: a piece of evidence that shows proof of collaboration with a community partner (e.g., email, letter).
  • For students: unofficial transcript
  • For research projects (not artistic projects): Proof of IRB approval, exemption, or a statement regarding human subjects. Applicants with research projects should provide one of the following:
    • IRB approval or exemption notice;
    • IRB protocol (if your application is currently under review); or
    • a statement explaining either:
      • How the research does not fit the definition of "human subjects research" according to one of the following documents:
        • See the document from Tulane University's Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) that explains how to determine if your research involves human subjects,
        • See the document from Iowa State University prepared for historians and those in related fields conducting oral history interviews.
      • How the research meets one of the eight (8) exemption criteria listed on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Safety's website.
      • For projects that cannot provide one of the two statements above, because the research is likely human subjects research that is not exempt, then please provide a statement summarizing the plan to apply for IRB approval.

Defining Community-Engaged Research and Projects

(CPS and CEAI requirement, CAIDS Preferred)

We follow CPS's definition of Community-Engaged Research, which is defined as research that engages community partners in reciprocal relationships to co-produce knowledge, resulting in public value and recognizable scholarly impacts in their field(s) of inquiry.

The term community engagement at Tulane University has divergent meaning that contradict each other. for example, the word community can refer to internal Tulane organizations, partners, campus neighbors, and more. The term engagement can refer to various action-oriented processes across a wide spectrum, ranging from one-directional information provision to fully reciprocal co-creation. Academic and administrative units' views on community engagement can thus differ greatly in meaning and practice. Recognizing this diversity of views and application, CPS defines community engagement in the following manner:

Community engagement is a process-oriented practice through which Tulane University units enter into reciprocal, mutually beneficial, co-creative relationships with members of broader local, national, and international communities.

  • These relationships are rooted in mutual respect, social justice, and common goals in pursuit of a more equitable public good.
  • Community engagement practices also establish relationships with community partners that recognize and include diversity in understanding, perspectives, and ways of knowing that exist outside traditional academic spaces.
  • Community-engaged research is a process-oriented academic action that engages with, rather than to or for, community partners in equitable and reciprocal relationships to co-produce knowledge and creative works that result in recognizable scholarly impacts in the field(s) of inquiry and/or public value.
  • Community partners may be nonprofit organizations, government offices, schools, faith-based organizations, hospitals, and for-profit businesses when the project is demonstrated to benefit the public and broader communities.

We recognize that researchers and faculty will be at different stages in the process of community-engaged research.

Requirement of Grant Recipients

Grant recipients agree to the following program requirements:

  • Agree that CAIDS, CEAI, and CPS may feature your work via this grant on our websites and on social media;
  • Recipients will consider, if requested, presenting their funded research or project at a CAIDS event (such as the annual data theme events, Love Data Week, or talks), the CEAI/CAIDS Lunch and Learn Series, and/or the CPS Speakers Series, depending on which center(s) funds the research or project;
  • Listing CAIDS, CEAI, and/or CPS as a sponsor or co-sponsors of the project at public lectures and in publications;
    • All publication and posters need to state, "The project [publication or poster] described was supported by Tulane University's [Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science and/or Center for Public Service and/or Center for Community-Engaged AI]. Its contents are solely the responsibilities of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of Tulane University or the grant funder(s)." (or a similar statement with similar content). 
  • For community-engaged projects: commitment to collaborate with student research assistants and/or community partners;
  • Submission of two short project updates, submitted every six months;
  • Submission of a comprehensive report after project completion or after all funds have been spent, whichever occurs first. For tangible products - such as a manuscript, presentation abstract, or white paper -- a copy of each product should accompany your final report or be submitted when published/presented if this is at a later date.