Laude Institute Awards 15 AI Research Grants in Inaugural Slingshots Program

The Laude Institute announced the first cohort of its Slingshots // ONE grant program on November 6, 2025, providing substantial resources to 15 artificial intelligence research projects. The initiative aims to accelerate AI advancements, particularly in the critical area of AI evaluation, by offering funding, high-performance compute power, and dedicated engineering support. The grants target researchers from leading academic institutions and open-source projects.

Braden Hancock, a key figure involved with the program, expressed enthusiasm on social media, stating, "Today we announced Slingshots // ONE, the first batch of Laude Slingshots grant recipients. And dang — it’s an impressive group of researchers and projects!" He highlighted the involvement of researchers from top universities, including Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University, alongside notable open-source projects.

The inaugural batch includes projects such as @terminalbench, @DSPyOSS, SkyRL, and CodeClash, covering diverse AI applications like benchmarks, frameworks, infrastructure, and intelligent agents. These projects are designed to deliver tangible outcomes, ranging from new startups to open-source codebases, bridging the gap between academic research and real-world application. The program emphasizes independent evaluation and open-source contributions to foster broader AI community progress.

Founded by Databricks and Perplexity AI co-founder Andy Konwinski, the Laude Institute launched with a $100 million commitment to ethical AI development. The Slingshots program is part of a two-track funding strategy, alongside "Moonshots," designed to provide comprehensive support that traditional academic grants often lack. This approach seeks to empower researchers to translate groundbreaking AI discoveries into practical solutions more rapidly.