Our incubator program, Elevate AI, aims to equip faculty, staff, local entrepreneurs, community members, and other regional partners with the skills, resources, and support needed to turn their ideas into successful AI-driven solutions. Elevate AI incubator awards are donor-funded with some supplemental support from the Provost’s Innovation Funds.
For the 2025-2026 Incubator Program, we are currently accepting two proposal types:
The subscription-only proposal provides support for individuals or teams that need access to a paid subscription or API credits to get started on an initial AI exploration, with the goal of submitting one of the two other proposal types after the two-month subscription time period.
This is only available to faculty and staff members at Fort Lewis College.
It provides up to $300 in funding for AI subscriptions, which can include access to paid versions of LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude), AI development software, API credits, and more niche/industry-specific AI solutions.
An initial two-month subscription will be provided. At the end of the two months, a short project report will need to be completed, including a description of specific application areas.
If the team or individual wants to extend their subscription, they must submit a Teaching with AI or a Full Project Proposal.
We accept applications through our online form. You'll want to prepare by being able to describe how your AI subscription or API credits will be used over the two month project. It's helpful if you can be as descriptive as possible in terms of use-cases and expected outcomes.
Applications open October 1, 2025. Deadline to apply is March 31, 2026.
This option provides support for individuals or teams that need a diverse set of AI-related resources to implement specific AI development projects. These projects might be anything from leveraging AI to respond to frequently asked questions to utilizing AI to analyze and improve donor outreach and fundraising campaigns. We’re looking for creative ways an AI solution can help tackle challenges and improve our community.
The following people are eligible to apply for funding:
Full-time FLC faculty members
Full-time FLC staff
Owner or employee at a local business or non-profit organization
An individual from one of the Tribal Nations in our region
Local entrepreneurs (based within 100 miles of the Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation)
Funding can be applied to eligible resources, including professional support and external consulting, software subscriptions, educational courses, computing infrastructure, and the use of the Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation facilities.
All approved projects will include regular check-ins with the AI Institute’s support team.
The maximum project funding amount is $6,000.
We accept applications through our online form. You'll want to prepare by being able to describe your current level of expertise with AI, the problem you're looking to solve with AI, and be sure to address how this links to our local region and how it could benefit the larger community. You'll be asked to describe your proposed AI-driven solution, how you envision it working in practice, and the expected outcome or impact of your solution if implemented successfully.
Applications open October 1, 2025. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2026. All approved projects will begin March 2, 2026.
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