The 2021 Call for Proposal will have a hybrid approach of closed and open call to tap into the expertise and collaborations developed by the existing f<a+i>r network, and to create opportunities for new research engagement, with a transition to open calls in 2022 and 2023.
Incubating Feminist AI: Call for Proposals
Overview
This decade there is a unique opportunity to not only mitigate, but correct for historic inequities buried in the data, put in the algorithm, implicit in the model, embedded in machine learning, then wired intricately in neural networks. The opportunity, as new systems proliferate and are being designed, is to revisit old assumptions and conceive of social services with ideas of efficacy and equity at the core–to go beyond only digitizing old programs for ‘efficiency’, which enable a more effective Patriarchy 4.0. Feminist AI‘s goal is AI harnessed to deliver equality outcomes; designed with inclusion at the core; creating new opportunities & proactive, innovative correction of inequities. The fr network focuses on bringing social programs in line with 21st research and values, dedicated to finding ways to make AI technology more effective, inclusive and transformational, not only more ‘efficient’.
Alliance seeks to collaborate with communities, practitioners, researchers, scholars and innovators working to springboard from the established ‘what’ of describing harm and ‘why’ harms exist socially or technically, to research focused on ‘how’ course-correcting future harms can happen, and most urgently ‘how’ new data, algorithms, models, policies + systems could be created, then prototyped, and piloted.
The 2021 call for proposals from multi-disciplinary, global south teams of feminist thinkers is intended to create opportunities for new research engagement. Novel approaches and new models, with a focus on practical application in prototype and pilot phases will be prioritized.
Papers will focus on multi-disciplinary work researching, creating, or iterating new AI framework models and designs for new or current social policy allocations in order to re-engineer system thinking and algorithmic solving for proxy problems and old assumptions buried in the data and now active in the new technology. This may include research on the efficacy of including or hiding protected characteristics, or finding social and economic models of allocation/distribution now made more possible and equitable through the creation or innovative use of new or big data in Algorithmic Decision-Making (ADM).
Some indicative areas: Social Policy & Protection Design (p.ex., Social insurance, social assistance and safety nets: from Subsidy, Digital ID, Land Tenure/Use, Pensions, Conditional Cash Transfer, Lotteries), Health, Housing and Education services, Labour activation policies, Social Welfare, Justice, new algorithmic applications of Indigenous, Decolonial, Traditional models, etc, Geospatial Mapping, and Climate Change.
Papers, Models, Prototypes, Pilots
- 9 proposals will be selected to be developed into papers each year of the three-year project, with 9 papers focused on the regions of eligible low-and middle-income countries in South and Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and the Middle East and North Africa.
- Out of the 9 papers delivered each year, 3 will be selected to go to Prototype.
- One of those 3 prototypes will go to an official pilot. The process will be repeated each year through 2024.
Fr is dedicated to helping untraditional academic teams or community groups find partners and will support teams with capacity-building where appropriate. Principal Investigators from each selected paper team will be required to attend bi-weekly meetings to discuss their approaches, insights and research progress throughout the duration of the project (including prototyping and pilot phases if selected). In addition to this South-South network knowledge sharing, teams (and selected applicants) will be invited to attend fr regional and/or global meetings happening bi-monthly.
Link to Criteria
Link to Research Directions
Submission Deadlines Round One
- Opens: 15 September 2021
- Closes: 31 October 2021 (Anywhere on Earth)
- Determination: 15 November 2021
- Bi-Weekly Meetings throughout the process
- Delivery: 15 May 2022
Successful papers chosen for Round One Prototypes: 30 May 2022
Prototyping Workshops: week of 6 June 2022
Prototype delivery: 6 January 2023
Grants
- CAD 8,000 per paper to the team with 2 Principal Investigators from 2 different disciplines, both based in the Global South.
- Prototype if selected: CAD 75,000 per prototype plus partner funding.
- Pilot if selected: CAD 50,000 to seed each partnered pilot.