Faculty Research Incubator Program Grants

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping how societies function—from the ways cities are run, and infrastructure is managed, to how children learn, workers interact with technology, and scientific knowledge is produced and communicated. Advances in machine learning, large language models, and automated decision systems are creating new opportunities for innovation, while also raising urgent ethical questions about equity, inclusion, resource extraction, environmental impacts, knowledge sovereignty, and human wellbeing. Still, current narratives about AI ubiquity and inevitability are only part of the story. Shaping and understanding these emergent transformations requires collaboration across disciplines. Scholars from all fields can offer valuable perspectives on the potential benefits and harms of AI and how AI systems will be designed, built, deployed, and experienced in everyday life.

The Newkirk Center for Science & Society at UC Irvine invites proposals for the inaugural cohort of teams to join the Science & Society Incubator, an initiative designed to catalyze the formation of durable interdisciplinary research collaborations focused on the 2026 theme of AI & Society. We invite proposals that examine the societal dimensions of AI, recognizing that ethical deployment of AI depends not only on its social impact, but also on the choices and decisions embedded in how AI development is imagined, built, implemented, and funded. The Incubator will help teams build a foundation for addressing these complex questions by seeding collaborations with lasting scholarly and public impact beyond the grant period.

Incubator Goals and Objectives

• Support interdisciplinary research partnerships among UCI faculty, including those who may not have previously collaborated
• Encourage scholars to address AI impacts on society across multiple dimensions and scales — from data collection and system design, to implementation decisions, to downstream societal consequences — and the feedback loops connecting them
• Provide protected time, resources, and intellectual community for teams to develop a shared research agenda
• Produce concrete outputs (e.g., collaborative grant proposals, publications, or public programming) that position teams for sustained research after the grant period
• Build a growing and visible network of UCI scholars engaged in research on the societal dimensions of AI with continuing ties to the Newkirk Center
• Generate publicly engaged scholarship accessible beyond the university
• Support collaboration between UCI researchers and community partners from industry, government, the non-profit sector, and community-based organizations and groups

Example Thematic Focus Areas

A. Ethics and AI Production: The values, decisions, and power structures embedded in how AI systems are conceived and built

• Who decides what problems AI should solve, and whose interests are centered?
• Data sourcing, consent, labor practices, and the ethics of training data
• Algorithmic design choices, model selection, and embedded assumptions
• The political economy of AI development — corporate, governmental, and academic incentives
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion in AI research and engineering teams
• Examining the ethics of AI across or within systems (e.g., healthcare, public health, criminal justice, economic policies, etc.)
• AI purpose and problem framing, algorithmic transparency and explainability, bias mitigation and fairness in AI systems, equitable access and digital capacity building, privacy and ethical data governance, and community-centered AI impact

B. AI Deployment and Governance: The conditions, contexts, and structures under which AI systems are introduced into practice

• Transparency, explainability, and informed consent in AI-enabled decision-making
• Procurement, regulation, and accountability frameworks
• Institutional and organizational responsibility for AI adoption
• The role of science in validating — or challenging — claims about AI system performance

C. AI Impact: The downstream effects of AI systems on individuals, communities, institutions, and the environment

• Equity and justice implications for marginalized or vulnerable populations
• Effects on labor, democratic participation, health, education, and the environment
• Impacts on water resources, energy systems, ecosystems, and biological diversity
• Epistemic consequences — impacts on truth, knowledge production, and public trust
• Long-term and systemic consequences that may not be visible at the point of implementation

D. Feedback Loops & Bidirectionality: How society shapes AI and vice versa

• How social inequities are encoded into training data and reproduced by AI systems
• How AI-generated outputs influence future data, scientific knowledge, and policy
• Community resistance, advocacy, and the role of affected publics in shaping AI development
• How scientific disciplines are transformed by the AI tools they adopt

Applicants are not limited to these example focus areas and may propose any project related to the broad theme of AI & Society. If applicants are unsure about their project fit with the program theme, they may contact alexanom@uci.edu with a 200 word abstract for feedback by June 15th before submitting a full proposal.

Program Overview

The Newkirk Faculty Research Incubator Program will support 3–4 interdisciplinary faculty teams conducting research related to the designated theme. Each team may receive up to $25,000 in seed funding over a 24-month period.

The goals of the Incubator are to foster interdisciplinary research on pressing societal challenges, strengthen collaborations between UC Irvine scholars and community, industry, or policy partners, generate scholarship that informs and is informed by public debate and policy decisions, and produce research that can lead to external grant funding and sustained partnerships.

Staff from the Research Justice Shop staff will host 4-5 webinars to support the Incubator teams in their interdisciplinary collaborations using the frameworks of team science and knowledge integration, participatory research approaches, and/or collective impact. Webinar themes will be selected early in the fellowship year by the teams and their external partners. Sessions will include presentation of tools and techniques that support interdisciplinary collaboration and ethical considerations when working with partners external to the university.

Incubator teams will also be expected to participate in Newkirk Center programming, including monthly research coordination lunches and public presentations at an annual symposium.

Eligibility and Team Structure

Applications must be submitted by teams of 2–5 investigators, and interdisciplinary collaboration is strongly encouraged. One team member with an Academic Senate title must be designated as the project Principal Investigator (PI). The PI’s academic unit will oversee compliance with UCI research and fiscal policies after the award is made.

Teams are encouraged to identify a potential external partner, such as a representative from a relevant organization, government agency, nonprofit, community-based organization, or industry partner, who, drawing on their subject matter expertise including lived experience, engages with the research team. Teams are expected to meet with their external partner at least once. However, commitment by an external partner is optional at the proposal stage. Newkirk Center and Research Justice Shop staff will be available to work with selected teams to help identify and establish relationships with community, industry, or public policy partners. External partner contributions may manifest along the spectrum of participation from consultation to codesign and co-ownership.

Proposal Requirements

Applicants should submit the following materials:

1. Project Description (2 pages max)
   A concise overview of the proposed research project that includes the central research question(s) and intellectual motivation, the relevance of the project to the AI & Society theme, the interdisciplinary contributions of the research team members, the envisioned identity and role of the external partner, and a description of proposed research activities and expected outcomes. Include potential outcomes that may support continuing research activity after the grant period.
2. Public Impact and Engagement Plan (1 page max)
   A statement explaining how the research will engage with communities or publics, including how an external partner would both support and benefit from the proposed research. This section should describe the societal relevance of the research, potential policy, community, or industry implications, and plans for disseminating findings beyond academia (for example, through policy briefs, community reports, workshops, public talks, or partnerships with government agencies or nonprofit organizations).
3. Budget and Justification

Teams may request up to $25,000 to support project activities during the 24-month project period, starting October 1, 2026. A short justification for each category should be included. Please use this template:Faculty Incubator Budget Template (also in supporting documents)

Allowable expenses include personnel salaries, fringe benefits, graduate student tuition and fees, research-related travel, research materials and supplies, computing resources, and other expenses such as workshops, meetings, meals for meeting participants, and stipends for community, industry, or policy partners. No overhead is allowed.

4. CV/Biosketch
   CV or biosketch for each team member (maximum 2 pages each; NSF or NIH format acceptable but not required)

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on scholarly and community impact, the justification for interdisciplinary collaboration, feasibility of the proposed research plan within a 24-month period, alignment with the Newkirk Center mission and the AI & Society theme, and the potential for generating external funding, sustained partnerships, and/or lasting scholarly and public impact beyond the fellowship period. Applications will be reviewed by the Newkirk Center staff and an ad-hoc committee that may include Newkirk Center Advisory Board members. A draft evaluation rubric can be found here: Incubator Evaluation Rubric