Accelerating Classical Liberal Research Across Divides
Freedom. Rights. Dignity. Prosperity.
Once revolutionary ideas, they have been reduced to background noise—familiar words, faintly heard, and too rarely felt.
At the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), we’ve always believed these ideals matter. But today, in an age of ideological fragmentation and institutional drift—with illiberalism rising across the political spectrum—we’re especially grateful to partner with those who know they matter more than ever. That’s why we’re proud to announce that the John Templeton Foundation has awarded IHS a grant of $1.5 million dollars to launch a bold new initiative: Accelerating Classical Liberal Research Across Divides.
This three-year investment will deepen IHS’s work at the intersection of scholarship and society, removing barriers, restoring trust in open inquiry, and helping the foundational ideas of a free society find their way into the hands of those who can put them to work.
“For decades, IHS has supported great scholarship,” said Jeanne Hoffman, director of solution coalitions at IHS and lead on the project. “Now, we have a bigger opportunity to get these ideas to the conversations that need them most. This grant allows us to go beyond generating them and focus on getting them used, tested, and put to work where they can make a difference.”
The John Templeton Foundation’s investment will support a portfolio of programs designed to overcome the intellectual fragmentation and institutional inertia threatening liberal ideals. The grant will fund mentorship and training for scholars committed to free and open debate, launch research incubators that bridge disciplines and ideological divides, convene in-person symposia to reconnect scholarship with public life, and develop tools (powered by emerging technologies such as AI) that lower barriers to knowledge and accelerate discovery.
The John Templeton Foundation has long championed the pursuit of meaning, wonder, and human purpose. At IHS, we see the classical liberal tradition as a living inheritance that makes that pursuit possible, by protecting the conscience, dignifying the individual, and creating space for discovery, dissent, and belonging. With this initiative, we are working to ensure that this inheritance endures so that the next generation can still pursue awe—and everything it makes possible.
This project is made possible through the support of grant #63170 from the John Templeton Foundation. The grant will run from September 2025 through August 2028. The opinions expressed in this release do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. For more information about this project or partnership opportunities, please contact Info@TheIHS.org.
