Harvard CHS Fellowship in AI Ethics 2026–2027 (Historical Reference)

Harvard CHS Fellowship in AI Ethics 2026–2027

Historical reference: the application round closed on 2026-02-06. This page is not a live invitation to apply. The official CHS pages checked for this update announce the 2026–2027 round and identify its fellow, but do not announce a later application cycle.

The Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece, together with CHS US, offered one postdoctoral fellowship for original research related to AI Ethics. The program was based in Greece and ran as a 12-month appointment from 2026-07-01 through 2027-06-30. It brought an interdisciplinary AI ethics project into the CHS community and connected the fellow with research resources, academic advising, and selected activities in Greece and the United States.

This entry preserves the details of that completed application round so researchers can understand what CHS offered and what a future announcement would need to confirm. Anyone looking for an open opportunity should treat the official program page as the source of truth and check whether CHS has published a new call. The archived deadline in the front matter is the real closing date, not a suggested replacement date.

At a glance

The official page describes the fellowship as a research appointment rather than a short course, prize, or general technology grant. The fellow chooses an original research project, works on it during the appointment, and is invited to participate in CHS activities. The topic must be related to the ethical, societal, or philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. CHS says the goal is to support work on frameworks for the development, deployment, and use of AI that align with collective values and ethics, while also contributing to democratic deliberation and decision-making.

What the fellowship provided

The award combined financial support with access and affiliation. The stipend was $12,000 for the 2026–2027 appointment. The fellow received year-long access to Harvard University’s online databases and resources, including Scan and Deliver services. That provision matters for a project whose evidence depends on scholarly literature, books, archival material, or other resources that may not be available through the applicant’s home institution.

The program also included an invitation to a ten-day educational trip to the United States. The official wording describes this as an invitation, so applicants should not read it as an unrestricted travel grant or assume that every cost is covered in every circumstance. CHS separately states that it covers travel expenses, including airfare and accommodations, when the fellow is invited by the Center to participate in events in Greece or the United States.

Other provisions were scholarly and public-facing. The fellow could be invited to pre-publish research outcomes in CHS e-Journals and to have a profile and project presented on CHS websites, social media, and other media. The fellow could participate in events and activities connected with the CHS academic community in Greece, including presentation opportunities such as the Lyceum Project conference on AI Ethics in Athens. Academic support and advising were provided by members of the fellowship’s academic committee.

The page also sets limits that are useful for interpreting the award. CHS says it does not offer separate grants for conference participation, books, electronic equipment, accommodation, family-related expenses, dining, or entertainment. It also says it does not pay per diems. In practical terms, the award was a compact fellowship package: a $12,000 stipend, research access, advising, invitations, and a defined connection to CHS activities. It was not advertised as a full-cost research budget.

Eligibility

The closed call required a PhD degree or equivalent. Applicants had to have defended the degree before 2025-12-01. That is the precise eligibility cutoff stated by CHS; the archived listing should not be read as accepting applicants who completed their defense after that date.

Applicants had to be fluent in English. Knowledge of modern Greek was preferred, and CHS said it would be preferable for the fellow to be based in Greece. These are meaningful fit considerations, but they should not be rewritten as a blanket nationality, residence, or Greek-language requirement. The official eligibility text presents them as preferences alongside the English-language requirement.

The call welcomed postdoctoral researchers from any discipline. CHS specifically mentions philosophy, sociology, law, public policy, and ethics, and also invites computer science proposals when they are interdisciplinary and engage with philosophical and ethical dimensions. A technically strong application therefore needed to make its ethical, social, or philosophical question central. A project focused only on model performance or engineering implementation would not match the program description as well as a project that connects technical work to human values, institutions, public decisions, or social consequences.

CHS said applications from postdoctoral researchers early in their academic career or working in non-tenure-track positions would be prioritized. The program offered one position. Applicants also could not apply to other CHS fellowship programs during the same application cycle. These points are part of the original call and remain useful context for anyone studying the program’s selection model, but they do not reopen the 2026–2027 round.

Required application materials

The application required three substantive components:

• A research proposal explaining the project and how a CHS fellowship would enable its completion.
• A curriculum vitae.
• A sample of published work.

Applicants also had to provide the names and contact information for two references. The official page does not state the proposal word limit, a maximum length for the published-work sample, or a required file format in the information preserved on the program page. Those limits should not be inferred from older copies or from generic fellowship practice. A future applicant should follow the instructions displayed by CHS’s application platform if a new call is announced.

Reference arrangements had their own restrictions. Applicants could not write reference letters for other applicants. Members of the selection committee and the CHS faculty director could not write reference letters. The two reference letters had to reach CHS through the CHS Greece application platform by 2026-02-11, after the main application deadline. That distinction is important: submitting names and contact information was not the same as ensuring that the two letters had arrived.

How the selection criteria worked

CHS said it would fund a proposal that did three things. First, it had to explain clearly and in detail how the fellowship would enable the proposed research and lead to its completion. Second, it had to show how the outcomes would add to existing knowledge and promote further inquiry and engagement in the applicant’s immediate field, the humanities, the social sciences, and other scientific fields more broadly. Third, it had to demonstrate that the researcher could achieve the proposed outcomes, using evidence such as academic achievement, prior publications, educational programs, and letters of support.

Those criteria point toward a focused, finishable project. An applicant needed more than a broad interest in responsible AI. The proposal had to identify a research problem, explain why the question mattered, describe an approach, and show why the applicant could complete the work during the appointment. Interdisciplinary breadth helped only when the links between fields were clear. A proposal could come from law, philosophy, sociology, public policy, computer science, or another discipline, but it needed to explain the ethical and human implications of its subject.

The CHS connection also needed to be concrete. The official description emphasizes collaboration with authorities and organizations in Greece, AI Ethics initiatives in Greece and abroad, and participation in the CHS academic community. A strong historical reading of the call would therefore look for a project that could benefit from scholarly resources, advising, discussion with researchers from other fields, or engagement with Greek institutions and public questions. These are fit considerations drawn from the program’s stated purpose, not extra eligibility tests.

Application timeline for the closed round

The official application period ran from 2025-12-08 through 2026-02-06. The deadline was Friday, 2026-02-06, at midnight Eastern European Time. The separate deadline for both reference letters was 2026-02-11. CHS stated that some applicants might be invited to online interviews and that all applicants would receive notification of the selection committee’s decision by early April 2026.

The successful fellow’s appointment began on 2026-07-01 and ended on 2027-06-30. That schedule explains why the page is now archived even though the appointment itself extends into 2027: the application window closed before the appointment began, and CHS has published the 2026–2027 fellow on its current fellows page. The historical status is about the availability of the application round, not a claim that the fellowship’s work ended on the day applications closed.

What a future announcement would need to confirm

This page should not be used to assume that the same stipend, dates, eligibility cutoff, reference process, or benefits will apply to a later round. A future CHS announcement would need to confirm its own appointment dates, amount, deadline, reference-letter process, application materials, and any changes to the academic committee or program provisions. The official CHS program page is the right place to verify those facts.

For applicants researching the opportunity’s history, the 2026–2027 call offers a clear checklist: confirm that the PhD timing fits the stated cutoff; prepare a research proposal, CV, and published-work sample; identify two eligible references; explain the project’s relationship to AI ethics and humanistic or social inquiry; and show how CHS resources and activities would help complete the work. For applicants seeking an open opportunity today, the correct next step is not to submit through the archived round. Check the CHS Greece research opportunities pages for a newly posted call or contact the program administrator listed by CHS.

Official sources

• Fellowship in AI Ethics — Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece
• Current fellows 2026–2027 — Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece

The first page is the official program description and application record. The second confirms that CHS has named a Fellow in AI Ethics 2026–27, which is why this opportunity is retained as a historical reference rather than presented as an open application.