LEGO Foundation opens global research fellowship for children’s thriving

Up to ten early- and mid-career researchers will receive USD 300,000 over three years to study children in crisis settings, neurodivergent inclusion, and AI-enabled learning.

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship will support up to ten researchers with USD 300,000 each over three years.

The LEGO Foundation has opened applications for a new global research fellowship offering up to ten early- and mid-career researchers USD 300,000 each over three years to study how children thrive.

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship has been launched to mark the LEGO Foundation’s 40th anniversary. Applications opened on 1 June 2026 and close on 31 July 2026, with the fellowship period running from 2027 to 2029.

The program is open to researchers around the world, except in countries subject to European Union or United States sanctions. Applicants must be employed by a university or research institute and must have received a PhD or equivalent research doctorate within the past ten years, subject to the fellowship’s career-break policy.

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship focuses on three areas: young children in crisis and conflict settings, inclusion and wellbeing for neurodivergent children, and children’s learning and development in an AI-enabled world.

The fellowship is developed in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and administered by the Social Science Research Council. Fellows will receive flexible research funding, join an interdisciplinary cohort, and take part in exchange with researchers, practitioners, policy audiences, and LEGO Foundation partners.

Research funding for children’s lives

The fellowship is designed for researchers whose work can build evidence around children’s development, learning, wellbeing, and inclusion.

The LEGO Foundation said on LinkedIn that the program welcomes researchers across disciplines and geographies, including education, psychology, data science, neuroscience, and humanitarian studies.

The fellowship materials state that relevant fields may also include child development, public health, economics, sociology, disability studies, human-computer interaction, and implementation science.

Funds are awarded to and administered by the fellow’s host institution. Allowable costs include research personnel, professional travel, equipment, dissemination, trainee support, and other project costs covered by the program guidelines.

Each fellow is expected to dedicate sustained time to the proposed research, participate in annual meetings and virtual cohort sessions, share work in progress, submit annual updates and a final report, and follow relevant ethical, safeguarding, data protection, and institutional requirements.

Three themes for researchers

The first research theme focuses on the youngest children in crisis and conflict settings, from birth to age eight. Eligible proposals may look at children and caregivers affected by humanitarian emergencies, displacement, instability, and recovery contexts.

The fellowship materials identify possible areas including resilience, family and caregiving environments, mental health and psychosocial support, scaling interventions, and translating evidence into humanitarian practice.

The second theme focuses on inclusion and wellbeing for neurodivergent children up to age 18. The fellowship specifically refers to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with applicants invited to study support before diagnosis, family environments, inclusive learning settings, transitions, and digital tools that may reduce barriers to learning, communication, participation, and belonging.

The third theme focuses on children’s learning and development in an AI-enabled world. Applicants can examine how AI affects children’s lives, learning, wellbeing, inclusion, social and emotional development, adult-child connection, productive struggle, motivation, engagement, and differences in access or support.

Play can be included where it is relevant to the research question, but it is not a condition of eligibility.

Application process and timeline

Applicants must submit an online application, a two-page resume or CV, a 250-word research abstract, a 500-word personal statement, a five-page research proposal, budget documents, and a selected bibliography.

Applications will be reviewed in two stages. An international and multidisciplinary committee of childhood development specialists will review first-round applications and nominate finalists. The LEGO Foundation’s review committee will then select grantees.

Applicants will be informed of their status in November 2026.

The LEGO Foundation Fellowship is now open for applications, with submissions due through the online application portal by 31 July 2026.