Empowering Change: 2025 GEM Incubation Fund Awardees Catalyze AI for Inclusive Development

The Harvard Center for International Development’s (CID) 2025 Global Empowerment Meeting (GEM) explored AI’s potential to drive more inclusive global development. At the conference, CID launched the annual application cycle for the GEM Incubation Fund to support research innovations with a direct impact on developing economies. Today’s announcement introduces the 2025 awardees—researchers whose innovative proposals translate the energy and insights of GEM into actionable early-stage projects poised to shape policy and expand opportunity.

Launched each year in conjunction with GEM, the GEM Incubation Fund supports emerging research that embodies the creativity, experimentation, and collaborative spirit of the convening. In a year focused on harnessing artificial intelligence for equity and inclusion, the 2025 awardees reflect a dynamic cohort of scholars leveraging AI—and insights shaped by AI’s rapid evolution—to address critical challenges in health, education, agriculture, climate adaptation, and crime. Their projects share a commitment to ensuring that technological progress expands opportunity and improves wellbeing for underserved communities globally. 

The 2025 GEM Incubation Fund awardees include: 

Emily Breza (Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences) — Crop Insurance at Scale and Adaptation to Floods

Sharad Goel (Harvard Kennedy School) — Harnessing Generative AI for Equitable, Scalable Teaching and Learning

Emilia Gracia (Arizona State University) — TALI: Local-Language AI Tool to Close Learning Gaps in Public Schools

Aarushi Kalra (University of Oxford) — AI and Crime: Evidence on Scammer Responses to AI-enabled Fraud Detection

Nicholas Ryan (Yale University) — Incentivizing Sustainable Agriculture Using Satellite Technology.

Duncan Webb (Nova School of Business and Economics) — Using AI to Improve Health Care in Rural India 

Together, these projects showcase a wide range of methodological approaches—from qualitative fieldwork and early-stage pilots to AI-driven simulations and system-level analysis. While diverse in focus, the 2025 awardees share a unifying vision: to harness the potential of AI in ways that are responsible, inclusive, and transformative.

“This year’s Incubation Fund cohort captures the ambition and urgency of GEM’s theme,” said CID Faculty Director Asim I. Khwaja. “Their work pushes us to think more expansively about what AI can enable, and who it can empower.”

The GEM Incubation Fund provides researchers with catalytic resources to test feasibility, strengthen partnerships, validate new tools, and refine study designs. This initial funding supports critical steps in building toward larger-scale evaluations and long-term impact. Past awardees have successfully leveraged early GEM support to secure additional funding, inform policy design, and deepen CID’s collaborations worldwide. The 2025 GEM Incubation Fund was made possible by sponsorship from the World Bank South Asia Digital team and The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

To learn more about the broader community of researchers advancing early-stage innovation through GEM, revisit the 2024 awardees, which advanced research on gender equity and development, and the 2023 cohort, which tackled critical questions around climate adaptation and resilience.

As CID continues its commitment to advancing AI for equitable global development, the 2025 cohort represents the next wave of innovative ideas emerging from the CID community. The research supported by this year’s GEM Incubation Fund is poised to catalyze meaningful, inclusive change and help build a thriving world for all.