OpenAI’s AI & Teen Development Research Grant Program 2026 – YOA

Deadline: October 6, 2026

Applications are open for the OpenAI’s AI & Teen Development Research Grant Program 2026. OpenAI is committing $5 million to assist unbiased analysis on how generative AI impacts the lives and growth of younger folks ages 13–17.

Generative AI is turning into part of how teenagers be taught, create, and search recommendation. Its results are prone to be nuanced. They might rely on what teenagers use AI for, how they have interaction with it, their particular person circumstances, and the assist out there from households, colleges, communities, and know-how suppliers.

They need to construct a stronger proof base about the way in which teenagers use AI, in addition to the impacts of AI on their lives, to tell growth of AI merchandise for teenagers and to assist reply main questions going through policymakers and regulators. For instance, they goal to deepen business-huge understanding of the nuances throughout age and context, efficacy of safeguards and interventions, and the ways in which proof can inform implementation and analysis. This program will fund unbiased analysis into the alternatives and challenges related to AI use throughout adolescence, with a selected concentrate on teenagers’ social and emotional growth.

Research Priorities

They encourage submissions that relate to a number of of the next subjects:

• Emotional growth and effectively-being: Research on emotion regulation, resilience, id, company, self-esteem, and social connection.
• Social growth and relationships: Research on friendships, household relationships, belonging, communication, empathy, social expertise, and the connection between AI and human connection.
• Patterns, contexts, and variance throughout demographics: Research on how outcomes fluctuate by time spent, sort and goal of use, age, tradition, language, socioeconomic circumstances, and different particular person or contextual components.
• Mitigations, age-acceptable design, and coverage approaches: Research evaluating safeguards, product interventions, AI literacy, parental or educator assist, and wholesome-use practices.

Grant

• They will award particular person analysis grants as much as $1 million and totaling as much as $5 million.

Eligibility

• Must be 18 or older;
• Must be affiliated with a analysis establishment or group, and/or important expertise related to child or adolescent growth, effectively-being, human-laptop interplay, AI impacts, or a intently associated subject;
• They are looking for to fund analysis slightly than for-revenue initiatives, so we is not going to prioritize for revenue organizations at the moment.

Review Criteria

Proposals can be evaluated based mostly on:

• Scientific rigor: The power and appropriateness of the analysis design and evaluation
• Relevance: Examination of a subject related to present public discourse on AI
• Proposal high quality: The readability, focus, and coherence of the application
• Actionability: The potential to translate findings into steering for fashions, merchandise, safeguards, regulatory approaches, or future analysis
• Ethics and safeguarding: The adequacy of protections for minors and different members
• Feasibility: Whether the challenge may be accomplished with the proposed sources and timeline
• Team experience: The group’s potential to conduct the proposed work responsibly
• Inclusion and generalizability: Attention to numerous populations, contexts, cultures, and experiences
• Complementarity: The extent to which the work provides to current proof and enhances OpenAI’s inner analysis agenda
• Independence and credibility: The challenge’s potential to provide reliable findings no matter whether or not these findings are favorable to suppliers of AI merchandise

Application

Applications must be formatted as a single-spaced Google doc. Applicants ought to submit:

• Project abstract: A quick overview of the proposed analysis and its anticipated contribution, lower than one web page.
• Research proposal: No greater than three pages, excluding references, addressing:
  • Research questions
  • Relevant prior analysis
  • Proposed strategies and evaluation
  • Study inhabitants and recruitment technique, together with proof of feasibility or entry
  • Expected outputs
  • Potential limitations
  • Relevance to this system’s targets
• Project plan and timeline: Key actions, milestones, and anticipated completion date.
• Budget and funds justification: Requested funding, main price classes, and another dedicated sources of assist.
• Project dependencies: An rationalization of necessities that have to be met for the analysis to be carried out and dangers that may endanger the challenge’s fruition.
• Ethics and safeguarding assertion: Required for any analysis involving minors, delicate data, or doubtlessly susceptible populations. Where related, proposals ought to explicitly reference any regulation governing analysis with teenagers and compliance technique.
• Team data: Short CVs or bios for the principal investigator and key group members.
• Independence and conflicts disclosure: Relevant monetary relationships, business funding, or different potential conflicts of curiosity.

Applications have to be submitted in English. Research itself could also be performed in any language.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to OpenAI’s AI & Teen Development Research Grant.