We are grateful for the enthusiastic participation in our EDU grants program. While this program has now closed, we invite you to explore CustomGPT with a free 7-day trial. Experience how our AI can revolutionize your projects and research!
After announcing recently our AI research grants for colleges and universities initiative, we’re excited to announce the first grant awards to professors at the University of Colorado Boulder and Front Range Community College as well as the University of Illinois.
Just two weeks ago we announced the faculty grant initiative as part of our commitment to fostering innovation and the practical application of generative AI in the academic world, particularly across education organizations. Each grant has a value of $3,000 and provides access to our highly rated zero-code, privacy-first, business-grade platform to build innovative solutions, including chatbots and AI assistants, for a wide range of applications and use cases in higher education.
Professors Michael Klymkowsky of the University of Colorado Boulder and Dr. Ann Riedl of Front Range Community College will build a Socratic tutor for Introduction to Biology students. Doug Laney from the University of Illinois will create a fictitious company for MBA Infonomics Students to engage with as part of their learning and a tool to grade almost 400 assignments against a predefined rubric.
We’re excited to support these innovative applications of CustomGPT.ai’s technology for learning and encourage more faculty members, especially those exploring how CustomGPT.ai works, to submit their applications for review. Applications in support of teaching and research are welcome. We will continue to award grants on a rolling basis. Reminder – the deadline to apply is May 31st
Professor Michael Klymkowsky, University of Colorado Boulder, and Dr. Ann Riedl, Front Range Community College – Socratic Tutor for Introduction to Biology Students
Professor Michael Klymkowsky, a recognized expert in biology education research with 20 years of experience developing curriculum and assessment systems, is leading this project to develop and refine AI tools to provide tutoring and assessment feedback for biology students. His colleague, Dr. Ann Riedl, has 15 years of experience in biology education and is head of biology instruction at Front Range Community College.
The team will leverage CustomGPT.ai’s capabilities to enhance learning based on generative AI’s potential to directly evaluate student interactions through Socratic dialogue, improve inclusivity, and foster a supportive and effective learning environment.
“Rita” will be a Socratic tutor chatbot, and “Dewey” will be the analysis bot. “Dewey” will assist instructors and students in evaluating their questions and answers, identifying misconceptions, and offering guidance.
Both tools will be used with students enrolled in introductory biology courses at the University of Colorado Boulder and Front Range Community College (a Hispanic-serving institution), as well as with practicing K-12 teachers enrolled in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Teaching and Learning Biology course.
The tutors aim to address the challenge of engaging students in scientific discussions that build confidence and understanding and enable them to apply core biological concepts to real-world scenarios.
Key Features of the Application
1. Student Engagement: Interacting with “Rita” in a non-threatening environment, students will be empowered to refine their ideas and develop biologically sound explanations.
2. Instructor Support: “Dewey” will provide instructors with insights to address gaps in student
understanding effectively.
3. Personalization: The bots will adapt to different student needs, potentially helping underserved students gain a more inclusive educational experience.
4. Real-World Application: Feedback from practicing K-12 teachers ensures relevance and improves bot-student-instructor interactions
CustomGPT.ai’s highly customizable, zero-code platform will allow the project team to focus on educational goals and outcomes, rather than the technical implementation, and facilitates adoption among faculty members with limited prior experience in AI, much like the projects highlighted among additional grant recipients. Real-time responses from the tools will enable dynamic interactions, engaging students while providing feedback and guidance.
We are also pleased that CustomGPT is enabling the team to support students in diverse communities, including university and community college students as well as K-12 educators.
Doug Laney, U. of Illinois – Fictitious Company for MBA Infonomics Students
Professor Doug Laney, an expert in infonomics with 30 years of academic and professional AI experience, will be developing two AI-based chatbots, a fictitious company bot for students to interview and an essay grading bot, to address the challenges faced in his MBA 565 Infonomics course and provide students with practical pseudo-real-world learning experiences and effective, consistent assessments.
The fictitious company chatbot will simulate a company’s communication specialist
and allow students to engage in an interview-style dialogue to learn about the company, its financials, mission, and competitive environment in order to complete their assignments.
The grading chatbot will assist Laney and his team in evaluating nearly 400 essays by scoring them against a predefined rubric, ensuring consistency and efficiency in the grading process.
Key Features of the Application
1. Simulated Interviews: Students will gain valuable business insights by interviewing the fictitious company’s chatbot, which will be trained on all relevant aspects, including financials, mission, and competitive environment.
2. Consistent and Efficient Grading: The grading bot will standardize assessments by
evaluating essays based on specific grading rubrics and providing graders with detailed reviews
and suggested scores.
3. Adaptable Technology: Both chatbots are designed to adapt to evolving needs, allowing Laney to fine-tune their responses based on classroom polls and feedback.
Laney believes CustomGPT.ai will enhance his students’ learning experience and engagement, create a more practical and immersive learning environment, and improve grading fairness.
Faculty Members are Encouraged to Apply Now for CustomGPT.ai Grants
Our grants initiative demonstrates our confidence both in our platform and in the largely unrealized potential of generative AI chatbots, agents, and knowledge repositories for enhancing student learning experiences, supporting tutors and graders, improving course delivery, and empowering academic research programs as well as many other use cases that students, professors, and entrepreneurs will want to explore.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to engage with educators and facilitate their ideas to enhance student outcomes and encourage colleges, universities, and faculty members to submit proposals that support their teaching and research missions.
What We Offer
Successful applicants will receive a CustomGPT.ai Premium License free for six months, providing access to our advanced AI tools valued at approximately $3,000. This package supports the creation of up to 100 custom chatbots, ensuring ample resources for impactful research and teaching projects.
Each faculty grant recipient will be supported by comprehensive documentation and potential one-on-one sessions to maximize the opportunity of using our AI tools in educational and research endeavors.
For full details of the grant available, who can apply, and how to apply, visit CustomGPT.ai Announces AI Research Grants for College Faculties
Frequently Asked Questions
What kinds of higher-education projects were strong fits for the first AI research grants?
The first funded projects were tightly scoped academic use cases with clear users and outcomes. One team at the University of Colorado Boulder and Front Range Community College is building a Socratic tutor plus an analysis bot for introductory biology students. A University of Illinois project is creating a fictitious company for MBA Infonomics students and a tool to grade almost 400 assignments against a predefined rubric. Barry Barresi described the value of similarly focused AI collaboration this way: u0022Powered by my custom-built Theory of Change AIM GPT agent on the CustomGPT.ai platform. Rapidly Develop a Credible Theory of Change with AI-Augmented Collaboration.u0022
Are AI grants only a fit for STEM courses?
No. The first awards already span both biology and MBA instruction, and applications supporting teaching and research are welcome. If you are assessing fit, the stronger signal is whether the project solves a defined academic problem, not whether it sits inside a STEM department.
Can a university AI tutor answer student questions accurately enough to be trusted?
It can be trusted when answers are grounded in approved institutional material rather than generated from scratch. Relevant safeguards here include RAG-based retrieval, anti-hallucination with citation support, and a published benchmark in which the system outperformed OpenAI in RAG accuracy. For academic use, the practical standard is simple: limit the assistant to vetted course or program sources and review outputs against learning goals.
How hard is it to build a no-code academic assistant for a department knowledge base?
You do not need a custom engineering build to get started. Each grant provides access to a zero-code, privacy-first, business-grade platform for building chatbots and AI assistants, and the system can ingest websites, documents, audio, video, and URLs. If your department later needs deeper integration, there is also an OpenAI-compatible API and 1,400+ Zapier integrations. Joe Aldeguer, IT Director at the Society of American Florists, described that extensibility this way: u0022CustomGPT.ai knowledge source API is specific enough that nothing off-the-shelf comes close. So I built it myself. Kudos to the CustomGPT.ai team for building a platform with the API depth to make this integration possible.u0022
Can faculty use this kind of grant for research assistants, not just tutoring?
Yes. Applications in support of teaching and research are welcome, so a proposal can be framed around a defined research workflow as long as the sources and success criteria are clear. That could include proposal support, lab knowledge-base Qu0026A, or onboarding around approved documents. Stephanie Warlick summarized the value of a knowledge-grounded assistant this way: u0022Check out CustomGPT.ai where you can dump all your knowledge to automate proposals, customer inquiries and the knowledge base that exists in your head so your team can execute without you.u0022
What should a department head check before backing an AI teaching or research proposal?
Start with three checks: answer quality, privacy controls, and project scope. If you are comparing options, including OpenAI-based DIY stacks or other RAG tools, the practical questions are whether answers stay grounded in approved content, whether security controls are independently audited, and whether your data is excluded from model training. Relevant checks here include a RAG benchmark that outperformed OpenAI, SOC 2 Type 2 certification, GDPR compliance, and a stated policy that data is not used for model training. Bill French highlighted the adoption side of performance with this observation: u0022They’ve officially cracked the sub-second barrier, a breakthrough that fundamentally changes the user experience from merely ‘interactive’ to ‘instantaneous’.u0022
Related Resources
These picks expand on the research, learning, and knowledge access themes behind this announcement.
- Education Grant Recipients — Meet the latest academic teams selected through the CustomGPT.ai education research grant initiative.
- AI In Learning — Explore practical insights into how AI is reshaping teaching, study support, and personalized education.
- Enterprise Knowledge Search — See how AI-powered enterprise search helps organizations surface trusted answers from internal content faster.
- Research Grant Program — Learn how the CustomGPT.ai research grant program supports innovators building meaningful AI-driven work.
- Search Drive And Notion — Find out how to make Google Drive and Notion content searchable through an AI interface for easier knowledge retrieval.