Each year, the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, a key component of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, releases a Call for Proposals (CFP) for the purpose of funding practical and applied interdisciplinary research in tech ethics. The 2024-25 Call for Proposals opens today, and invites proposals for projects that provide new insights or suggest innovative solutions to the question How do we design effective solutions for safe and ethical human-AI collaboration in real-world settings?
Specifically, this CFP seeks projects with the potential to inform, explore, and enhance human-AI collaboration efforts in the immediate future. The objective is to foster developments that leverage AI to augment human tasks and ensure that these collaborations are ethical, inclusive, and beneficial to society at large. As AI systems become increasingly sophisticated, there is a pressing need to understand and optimize how they can work alongside humans in various domains, but also to anticipate potential medium- to long-term impacts of such settings in critical sectors.
Potential applications for study include industry (e.g., healthcare, financial services), artistic creation, sustainability, neurotechnologies, politics, emergency and disaster management, advertising, social media, smart cities, and others.
Successful applications will propose a defined deliverable (e.g., research papers, draft policy, teaching materials, and impact assessments) that addresses the challenges described in the call. The application deadline is October 31, 2024. Teams will have from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025 (12 months), to complete the project. Teams may apply for up to $60,000 (USD) in award funding. A detailed budget and timeline must be submitted as part of the application. Eligible applicants include faculty, staff, and students from institutions of higher education; individuals representing nonprofits other than institutions of higher education; individuals representing for-profit organizations; individuals representing local governments and independent researchers. Each project team must include the collaboration of at least one University of Notre Dame faculty with an allocated budget.
Review the 2024 Application Packet for more information about timelines, eligibility, project awards, and selection criteria, and email techlab@nd.edu with questions.
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The Notre Dame–IBM Technology Ethics Lab, which is a key component of the Notre Dame Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, promotes broad-based, far-reaching interdisciplinary research, thought, and policy leadership in artificial intelligence and other technology ethics by engaging with relevant stakeholders to examine real-world challenges and provide practical models and applied solutions for ethical technology design, development, and deployment. The Lab is sponsored by IBM through a 10-year, $20-million investment.