Mellon Foundation - Higher Learning Program

Registration Deadline: Monday, December 1, 2025 by 12pm 

Concept Deadline: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 by 12pm. Please note - Institutions are limited to submitting no more than three concepts by the application deadline. Finalists will be selected by Mellon Foundation, and invitations for full proposals will be issued during the summer of 2026. There is no limit to how many individuals per institution can register. 

Amount: $250,000 to $500,000

About: The Mellon Foundation’s Higher Learning Program supports inquiry into issues of vital social, cultural, and historical import. Projects should engage teams of scholars and/or students, and have visible, enduring impact at the institution. They must also be demonstrably grounded in the humanities and led by humanities scholars. 

Applications will be accepted for research and/or curricular projects focused on either of the following two areas: 

• Unruly Intelligences - This area explores the urgent role the humanities have in shaping contemporary understanding of artificial and other intelligences – and in making practical, informed recommendations about how to regulate and/or adopt AI in our learning, work, and most intimate lives.

• Normalization and Its Discontents - How does the concept of normalcy govern notions of human life, and when doesn’t it? What are the structures and systems that keep it in place, in realms as disparate as the aesthetic, socioeconomic, psychological, physiological, political, spiritual, and ethical? What, if anything, does the historical knowledge of its recent invention – and vigorous social rejections – enable?

Experimental methodologies, interdisciplinary and community collaboration, and pathways to informing campus and/or wider policies and practices are welcome. 

APPLY: For more details and to apply, please visit the Higher Learning program page.

NOTE: If you are interested in applying or have any questions, please contact our Pre-Award Specialists Pia Gabriel at pg12@humboldt.edu, Kaz Wegmuller at kaz.wegmuller@humboldt.edu, or Jocelyne Takatsuno at jt366@humboldt.edu ASAP. Please note - this is a limited submission opportunity and no more than three applications may be submitted.