NSF GRANTED Grant #2427549 Sub-Award Application
Open June 18 – July 12, 2026
Crossing the Innovation Valley of Death: Democratizing Data and Artificial Intelligence for Research Administration (AI4RA)
AI4RA invites institutions to join a collaborative community dedicated to advancing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science solutions for research administration. Through this sub-award opportunity, partner institutions will work alongside AI4RA throughout years 3 and 4 of the project (9/1/26 – 8/31/28) to explore, develop, and refine AI-driven approaches to the challenges research administrators face every day, from document processing to data management and beyond. Partners may engage with existing AI4RA tools such as Vandalizer, an AI document processing platform, or the Unified Data Model (UDM), a schema and infrastructure designed to help institutions more easily structure, organize, and analyze their research data. Equally, we welcome collaborators who bring fresh ideas and novel approaches to AI adoption in research administration. Our goal is to build a diverse coalition of institutions whose varied perspectives, technical environments, and administrative experiences strengthen the tools and practices we develop together, and to ensure those innovations are shared openly with the broader research administration community.
We welcome partners who bring varying perspectives and experiences in research administration and are eager to collaborate in developing and adopting AI and Data Science tools. Ideal partners will have institutional support for exploring new technologies, the technical capacity (or a plan to build it) to participate in tool development and pilot testing, and a willingness to engage actively with the AI4RA community. All partners must commit to open-source principles: tools, code, workflows, and other outputs developed through this project will be shared openly with the research administration community as part of the NSF GRANTED mission.
NOTE: Maximum budget allowance will be capped at $100K
The Written Narrative is your opportunity to tell us about your institution, your team, and your vision for this collaboration. We value candor over polish. There are no wrong answers, and we are not looking for institutions that have everything figured out. An honest assessment of where your team stands today is far more useful than an idealized picture of where you think we want you to be.
Your narrative should address the following:
- Current landscape. Describe the research administration challenges your institution faces and how AI or data science tools might help address them. What problems keep your team up at night?
- Technical environment. Describe your current systems, data infrastructure, and technical capacity. Where are your strengths, and where are the gaps?
- Vision for collaboration. How do you see your institution contributing to and benefiting from the AI4RA community? This could involve working with existing tools like Vandalizer or the UDM, pursuing new ideas, or both.
- Project team and expertise. Who will be involved, what do they bring to this work, and how much time can they dedicate?
- Implementation approach. How would you approach adopting or developing AI and data tools at your institution? What does a realistic timeline look like?
- Sustainability. How would you sustain this work beyond the sub-award period?
- Measures of success. How would you know this collaboration was successful for your institution?
Institutional Leadership
This letter should come from a senior institutional leader such as a Director of Sponsored Programs, Vice President of Research, or Chief Research Officer. The letter should affirm the institution’s commitment to participating as a sub-awardee and confirm that the project team has the support and resources needed to engage meaningfully in this collaboration, including personnel time and administrative support.
IT Operations Team
This letter should come from a senior IT leader such as a Director of IT Operations, Chief Information Security Officer, or Director of IT Compliance & Risk Management. The letter should speak to the institution’s technical capacity to support participation in an open-source AI and data tool development initiative, including available infrastructure and any known constraints such as security or compliance requirements. As with the narrative, candor is valued. Understanding your institution’s technical realities helps us plan for effective collaboration.