10 July 2026

ai@cam is inviting educators across the University of Cambridge to apply for a new funding programme supporting practical experiments in how teaching and learning should evolve in a world with AI.

The AI for Teaching and Learning programme will provide teams with up to £10,000 to develop and test new approaches in their own teaching. Running for six months during the 2026–27 academic year, the programme will combine funding with technical scoping and support from the AI Clinic and opportunities to learn alongside other funded teams.

AI tools are already changing how students learn and produce work. The new programme asks educators to explore how teaching can best achieve world-class educational outcomes as AI capabilities and patterns of use continue to change.

“AI creates real opportunities to improve education, and Cambridge has an opportunity to shape what excellent education looks like as the context for teaching and learning changes,” said Jess Montgomery, Director of ai@cam.

“We want to back the people who understand teaching and learning at Cambridge to try new approaches, learn from what happens in practice, and build evidence that others across the University can use.”

Supporting educator-led experimentation

The programme is open to people involved in undergraduate or postgraduate teaching, including academics, Directors of Studies, supervisors and examiners, as well as education managers and course administrators who shape the educational experience.

Projects should begin with a clear teaching or learning challenge or opportunity and propose a practical approach that can be developed and tested during the programme. This could include using AI to support teaching or learning, redesigning teaching in response to students’ use of AI, or developing new approaches to formative work, feedback or supervision.

Projects might explore how AI can support better feedback or student understanding; how teaching should change when students use AI as part of their work; how educators can strengthen creativity, original thinking or disciplinary judgement; or how expectations about appropriate AI use can be translated into effective teaching practice.

Each funded project will be expected to produce something that colleagues can use or learn from, such as a redesigned element of a course, new teaching or learning materials, a tool or resource, practical guidance, or evidence about how a new approach works in practice.

Building evidence for excellent teaching

The programme comes as the University develops its approach to generative AI in education, including new expectations for Tripos-level guidance on students’ use of generative AI.

By supporting practical experiments in live teaching contexts, ai@cam aims to build a shared body of evidence and experience that can inform teaching practice and future guidance across the University.

Funded teams will join a community of projects to share what they learn, including approaches that do not work as expected, and will present their findings at a final showcase in 2027.

Find out more

Applications must be submitted by 23:59 on Thursday 24 September 2026 via the application form.

Applicants are asked to submit a project proposal of no more than two A4 pages setting out the teaching or learning challenge or opportunity they want to address, what they propose to develop and test, and what they hope to learn.

To find out more and apply, visit the AI for Teaching and Learning call page.