Meta said on 28 October 2026 that it is providing $2 million in grants across five US universities, alongside access to its AI models for medical and scientific research. The partners are California Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Louisiana State University, Indiana University and UTHealth Houston. Meta said the arrangements also include direct collaboration with its researchers.
Meta said the grants expand its academic research partnerships. An earlier AI Affairs report on AMD’s planned $1 billion Meta investment covered Helios systems entering testing. At Louisiana State University, Michael Dunham is developing Eyes-On, a camera-based system intended to detect displaced tracheostomy tubes and signs of distress in infants, Meta said. The project is exploring Meta’s open-weight SAM models for tracking, and a proof of concept has been published.
At Indiana University, David Crandall is developing methods to help conversational agents adapt to the communication patterns of people with dementia, according to Meta. At Ohio State, Yuan Xue, Yuchi Han and Xia Ning are investigating whether abdominal CT scans, medical records and, when available, ECG data can help Meta’s open-weight models predict future heart failure risk. Meta said the team is designing its model to work when some clinical data is missing.
