Kapor Foundation AI research fellowships

A small grant just opened for people who want to dig into how artificial intelligence is taught, governed, and deployed, and the ceiling is high enough to fund a real reporting or policy project: the Kapor Foundation says it will award up to 15 fellowships worth $35,000 each in 2026. The first awards are scheduled to be announced by June 30, 2026, and applications are being accepted on a rolling basis. (kaporfoundation.org, kaporfoundation.org) This is not a general “build an app” fellowship. The program is split between two lanes: journalists producing long-form investigative reporting and researchers at research or policy institutes doing analysis or evaluation that can inform policy. (kaporfoundation.org, opportunitydesk.org) The foundation is aiming that money at three buckets: computer science and artificial intelligence education, innovation, and governance. In plain terms, that means work on who gets access to computing education, who benefits from new tech markets, and what rules or standards shape how these systems are used. (kaporfoundation.org, kaporfoundation.org) The Kapor Foundation is not a neutral “future of tech” shop. It describes itself as a national philanthropy working at the intersection of racial equity and technology, with a mission focused on reducing long-running inequality in the tech sector and expanding opportunity for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities. (kaporfoundation.org, kaporcenter.org) That framing explains why the fellowship is so specific about outcomes. The foundation says it wants research and investigative work that can expose barriers in the tech ecosystem and support “actionable solutions,” not just theory for theory’s sake. (kaporfoundation.org, opportunitydesk.org) On the education side, the request for proposals points to questions like gaps in access to computing and artificial intelligence education, the policy tools that could expand participation, and how artificial intelligence is changing education pathways tied to future jobs. It also calls out state-level and institutional policies for responsible artificial intelligence education as a research target. (kaporfoundation.org) The eligibility rules tell you who this money is really for. Journalists must be based in the United States and have at least five years of investigative reporting experience, while researchers must be staffed at research or policy institutes and already publish work on computer science education, artificial intelligence education, or tech policy. (kaporfoundation.org, opportunitydesk.org) The reporting lane is also built to push projects toward publication, not just pitches. Investigative applicants need a commitment letter from a media outlet saying an editor will be assigned and the reporting will be published, and the stated deliverable is a published long-form print or digital article. (kaporfoundation.org, opportunitydesk.org) That is why a $35,000 cap can matter more than it looks. For a newsroom freelancer, that can buy months of reporting time; for a policy institute, it can fund a focused study, a dataset build, or a concrete evaluation that is small enough to finish and specific enough to be used. This last point is an inference from the fellowship’s size, target applicants, and publication requirements. (kaporfoundation.org, kaporfoundation.org) The bigger picture is that a lot of artificial intelligence debate now gets stuck between giant national bills that move slowly and academic papers that arrive too late for regulators. Programs like this sit in the middle: they pay for reporting and policy work that can turn vague arguments about “responsible artificial intelligence” into evidence, case studies, and draftable rules. That connection is an inference based on the fellowship’s stated focus on policy-relevant research, responsible artificial intelligence, and tech ethics. (kaporfoundation.org, kaporfoundation.org)