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Greetings,

 

We are excited to share this funding opportunity from Coefficient Giving (previously named Open Philanthropy). The Global Health and Wellbeing in an Era of Transformative AI program will support research to help ensure that AI progress will achieve its transformational potential to improve health and accelerate science as well as economic growth. More information about this opportunity can be found in the synopsis and links below. For a full list of currently open opportunities that have been announced through our office, please visit our new Current Opportunities web page. As a reminder, our Research Development team is available to provide proposal development support to FAS ladder faculty.

 

Global Health and Wellbeing in an Era of Transformative AI

  • OSP Deadline: 
    • Exploratory or Standard Grants (Proposal): August 14, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET 
    • Major Grants (Expression of Interest): August 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET
      Departments or areas may require additional time for proposal review and submission. Please discuss a timeline with your departmental or FORA grants administrator.
  • Sponsor Deadline: August 21, 2026 
  • Award Amounts:
    • Exploratory Grants: <$100,000
    • Standard Grants: $100,000-$1,000,000
    • Major Grants: >$1,000,000
      Grants will be made for up to two years. Indirect costs may not exceed 10% of total direct costs.This falls short of the 15% overhead required by FAS/SEAS policy. Please discuss this with your grants administrator before preparing an application.
 

Program Overview

 

Coefficient Giving (CG) is a philanthropic funding and advising nonprofit organization that partners with leading donors to increase their impact. CG identifies and provides research on cause areas and specific giving opportunities, as well as strategic guidance, to its philanthropic collaborators to enable pooling of capital around high-impact opportunities. The request for proposals (RFP) on Global Health and Wellbeing in an Era of Transformative AI will support rigorous and cost-effective research, policy development, field-building, and implementation focused on improving health and economic outcomes for individuals, in measurable ways. The RFP aims to support approaches that are responsive to both the challenges and opportunities that a world transformed by AI might bring. CG expects to allocate $10-30 million through this RFP among a few indicative categories: 

  • Exploratory grants (less than $100,000): Research and writing projects, scoping studies, prototypes of potential future work, and short-form policy work.
  • Standard grants ($100,000-$1,000,000): New hires at an existing organization, larger research programs, or launching a small (1-3 person) organization.
  • Major/Large grants ($1,000,000-$10,000,000): Larger new organizations, institutional capacity-building, substantive policy engagement, or more complicated preparatory infrastructure.
  • Proposals larger than $10,000,000 will likely require a longer review process outside this RFP. 

 Example projects include:

  • Research on how global health grantmaking should respond to advances in AI;
  • A technical assistance program to make emerging economies more robust to AI labor market disruption; or
  • Efforts to build clinical trial and regulatory infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) before AI-enabled treatments outpace the systems meant to deliver them. 

Please also see example ideas of specific grants at each funding level for illustrative purposes. 

 

Priority Areas

  • CG intends to fund work along two complementary axes: 
    • Identifying the preparatory steps global health funders and actors should take (e.g., research, policy analysis, empirical mapping)
    • Executing on preparatory steps that are likely high-value (e.g., infrastructure, relationships, field-building, piloting)
  • CG is particularly interested in seeding new organizations or bringing new people into thinking about this area.
  • Most research selected for funding will include a public communication and/or policy engagement component; CG is unlikely to fund projects without these features.
  • This RFP is distinctly focused on the larger implications for health and wellbeing of a world drastically transformed by AI, and is not geared toward funding "AI for good" interventions—projects where AI is directly utilized as a tool to improve health, education, agriculture, etc. 
 

Application Materials

  • Complete the online application form, including:
    • Contact information
    • Organization name 
    • Project title
    • Description of project (maximum 2,000 characters) 
    • Budget information (estimate of minimum and maximum cost) 
    • Budget breakdown of how funds will be spent 
  • Application processes will differ based on the requested grant size as identified in the application form
    • Exploratory grants (<$100,000): CG will respond to applicants with a decision.
    • Standard grants ($100,000-$1,000,000): CG will reach out with next steps, which may include follow-up questions or a direct decision. 
    • Major grants (>$1,000,000): The application form is the first stage of the process, which is an expression of interest. CG will review these applications monthly and invite select applicants to submit a full proposal. 
 

Selection Criteria

  • CG frequently uses the Importance, Neglectedness, and Tractability framework, which in this RFP may cover: 
    • Importance: The work addresses a major implication of transformative AI; project success would meaningfully sharpen understanding of transformative AI impact.
    • Neglectedness: Extent to which the proposed work would happen more slowly, or perhaps not at all, without CG funding.
    • Tractability: Likelihood of the proposed approach to produce useful outputs on the proposed timeline; qualifications of the applicant or team.
  • Assessments are made through the project's expected impact on health and economic prosperity. Proposals for research or writing should consider and clarify the work's clear path to direct impact. 
 

Additional Information and Resources

 

If CG is unable to provide support but believes funding may be available from other sources, application materials may be shared with other funders. Applicants should indicate their preferences for confidentiality when applying. 

 

Read more about CG's fund pools, including the Global Health & Wellbeing Fund for this RFP.

 

Questions from FAS or SEAS faculty about this opportunity may be directed to Research Development.

MAILING LISTS

Sign up to join the mailing list for FAS Funding Focus, a resource series tailored to help FAS faculty and staff navigate the ever-evolving landscape of grants and funding. Previous editions of FAS Funding Focus (FFF) are accessible in the FFF archive. To receive additional announcements from FORA, including the monthly On Your RADAR (Research Administration Developments & Announcements Rundown) newsletter and invitations to the FORA Forum, a monthly meeting for Harvard research administrators, please sign up for the FORA listserv here.
 

RESOURCES

Research Development maintains a Sample Proposal Library of successful proposals from recent award recipients that are available to FAS and SEAS faculty by request; please email Research Development to request to view a proposal. For more information on Research Development's resources—including lists of internal funding programs, early career funding programs, and sabbatical fellowships—please visit the Funding Opportunities web page. 
 

SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PIVOT

All Harvard affiliates can search for opportunities and set up alerts using Pivot, a searchable database of federal and private funding opportunities. Information on Pivot, including a one-page user guide, and other funding opportunity databases available to the Harvard community can be found on the Funding Databases web page.
 

PIVOT CURATED SEARCHES

Curated funding opportunity lists are funding search topics of broad interest. The following curated lists can be further refined in Pivot based on your funding needs. To view the results you must be on a Harvard network or logged in to your Pivot account. Information on setting up a Pivot account can be found in our one-page user guide. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quantum Science and Engineering 

 

 

Additional curated lists are available on the Funding Databases web page. We continue to add to and refine these lists based on feedback. Please feel free to reach out to us at research_development@fas.harvard.edu with any suggestions you may have.
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