November 3, 2025
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | communications@lei.org
Initiative will help Indiana colleges and universities address AI challenges and opportunities for their institutions and students
INDIANAPOLIS – Lilly Endowment Inc. is launching a new initiative, Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education (AIHE), to support Indiana colleges and universities in their ongoing efforts to address the implications of a rapidly evolving technology in their institutions and the lives of their students.
Through AIHE, the Endowment is allocating a total of up to $500 million in funding to eligible higher education institutions in Indiana. The aim of the initiative is two-fold: to help Indiana colleges and universities 1) consider more fully the challenges and opportunities that artificial intelligence (AI) presents for their institutions and their students, and 2) develop new or enhance existing strategies and programs to improve their students’ education opportunities and outcomes and their preparation to prosper in the workplace and life in a future that will be increasingly shaped by AI.
“Indiana colleges and universities are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities arising from advances in AI, said N. Clay Robbins, the Endowment’s chairman and CEO. “Higher education leaders have told us that their institutions are working as expeditiously as they can to discern how to best take advantage of the opportunities arising from AI and mitigate the potential unintended consequences this increasingly prevalent technology may have in their institutions and the lives of their students. They are intensely focused on how they can effectively prepare their students to succeed in a future in which AI will be increasingly ubiquitous.”
The Endowment recognizes that some Indiana colleges and universities may be further along than others in their deliberations and development of strategies to respond to AI-related challenges and opportunities. Given this and the great variety in the missions and contexts of Indiana’s colleges and universities, the nature of support to be provided through AIHE is purposefully broad to encourage eligible institutions to consider how they might address AI-related challenges and opportunities in ways that are particularly relevant to them. The Endowment, therefore, anticipates awarding grants to support a wide range of projects.
There are three ways eligible colleges and universities can apply for funding in amounts based on student enrollment under AIHE. They can:
- Request planning grants ranging from $125,000 to $300,000 to help them explore ways in which they may address AI-related challenges and opportunities and prepare proposals for implementation grants.
- Submit proposals for implementation grants ranging from $5 million to $25 million that will help colleges and universities implement new or expand existing compelling projects that address AI-related challenges and opportunities relevant to their institutions and students.
- Work with one or more other Indiana colleges and universities to propose collaborative projects that the Endowment will consider funding with grants of up to $40 million. Extraordinarily compelling collaborative proposals may be funded at higher amounts.
AIHE furthers the Endowment’s longstanding belief that post-secondary education is foundational for meaningful employment and a satisfying quality of life. Through previous grantmaking, the Endowment has supported efforts at Indiana colleges and universities and other organizations in Indiana to foster student success in post-secondary education, address declining college graduation rates, promote career readiness, and build upon the state’s intellectual capital.
The Endowment expects to award AIHE planning grants by the end of 2025, and to announce implementation and collaboration grant awards by the end of 2026.
About Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. While the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States on an invitational basis to support these causes, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.