Details of the seed funding

This program brings together international experts from across academia, civil society, government, and industry to drive sector-specific practice and action by developing and implementing solutions using responsible AI.

The successful projects will involve a network of interdisciplinary collaborators led by a core group of up to six individuals. Each team works to develop approaches and applications to support implementation of responsible AI to address urgent, timely problems.

Award Amount

The initial seed funding award will be 5,000 euros per successful network to support costs directly associated with advancing the network’s ambition.  Seed funding will initially be awarded for one year. 

Additional Support

In addition to the seed funding award, successful candidates will become Discovery Fellows and will have access to:

• Additional logistical support to enable a minimum of two interactions per year (in-person or virtually) between members of the network and external experts.

• UCD Discovery’s programmatic and administrative support

The proposed network should be made up of an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral team and should:

• be led by two co-directors and can be composed of additional members of any level including PhD students. 
• include at least one computer/data scientist.
• include at least one medical sciences expert.
• achieve equity, diversity and inclusion in the team composition.

Proposals with expertise in legal, ethical or policy implication of AI will be favourably received.

Proposals will be evaluated based on proposed network composition and planned outputs.

Planned network outputs may include:

• Research Workshop, Conference, Symposium
• Themed networking event
• A preliminary grant proposal
• A joint research publication
• A publication directed toward non-academic audiences such as policymakers and NGOs
• Podcasts or other media content

Application procedure

This award is now closed for 2025/2026