Application Form: Stats Up Ai - AILA 2027

Application Process

Call for Applications (CFA) 

The Stats Up AI Winter 2027 Leadership Academy invites applications from leaders and rising leaders in statistics, biostatistics, and data science across academia, industry, and government. We seek applicants at different stages of leadership with the capacity to implement transformative AI initiatives. Participants will be selected for a distinguished cohort of members positioned to shape and advance AI initiatives within their organizations and communities. Applicants should be prepared to articulate specific local challenges—in research, education, or management—that they intend to address through an AI-enabled solution. Successful candidates will demonstrate strong institutional support from leadership, peers, and collaborators.

Application Requirements

  • Brief Bio & Current Role (approx. 150 words): Outline your institutional affiliation, current leadership capacity, and career stage, highlighting your leadership experience or potential to drive AI-related change and team-based AI adoption. Include a link to your professional profile or personal website.
  • Short CV (Maximum 2 pages): Provide a concise curriculum vitae highlighting relevant experience, leadership roles, and scholarly or professional achievements.
  • Statement of Intent (Maximum 2 pages): Articulate a potential initiative you are thinking of leading locally—such as modernizing a course curriculum, establishing an AI-supported research workflow, or developing a departmental policy or pilot—and explain how it addresses a critical challenge in your local environment, explain your vision and practical plan to design, pilot, and scale it within your position, describe how you will engage with and contribute to the Academy cohort, and detail the expected benefits to your organization, field, or the statistical community at large. 
  • Letter of Support (Maximum 2 pages): Provide evidence of institutional readiness and explicit buy-in from a supervisor or department/school leader, confirming support for your authority and capacity to implement the proposed AI initiative.

Submission Instructions: All application components listed above must be combined and submitted as a single PDF document (format: 12pt font, single-spaced, 1-inch margins all around). Please use the following naming convention for your file: AILA2027-LASTNAME-FIRSTNAME.PDF

Selection Rubrics

  • Strategic Alignment: How well does the proposed initiative address a critical challenge in the applicant's environment?
  • Leadership & Potential: Demonstrated leadership or clear potential to lead AI-related change in their organization or community; Evidence of collaborative experience and commitment to team-based AI adoption.
  • Implementation Potential: To what extent does the applicant hold the organizational position and buy-in necessary to pilot and scale this initiative?
  • Academy Fit and Engagement: the likelihood of benefiting from and contributing actively to the Academy and cohort.
  • Broader impact: Potential to benefit the applicant's organization, field, a broader community or other fields.

Application Form Fields

  1. Applicant Full Name: Text (First Name, Last Name)
  2. Applicant Email Address: Text
  3. Current Job Title: Text
  4. Organization / Institution Name: Text
  5. NISS Affiliate Discount: Applicants affiliated with a NISS member institution may be eligible for a registration discount. Please indicate your institutional affiliation below. Eligibility will be verified during the registration process, and the applicable discount will be applied to your registration fee. 

NISS Affiliate Status: Single-choice (Yes, No, Unsure / Not Applicable) - Are you affiliated with a NISS member institution?

  1. Sector: Single-choice (Academia, Industry, Government, Non-Profit, Other)
  2. Link to Professional Profile / Personal Website: URL
  3. Link to Department, Team, or Lab Website (Optional): URL
  4. Letter of Support Writer - Full Name: Text
  5. Letter of Support Writer - Title & Affiliation: Text
  6. Letter of Support Writer - Email Address: Text
  7. Funding Confirmation: Checkbox/Acknowledgement ("I confirm that I have or will secure institutional/departmental funding to cover travel, lodging, and academy registration fees.")
  8. Community & Active Participation Commitment: Checkbox/Acknowledgement ("I understand that AILA is designed to build an ongoing community of practice, and I commit to active participation in the 2-day academy and post-academy virtual check-ins/reunion.")
  9. Brief Title of Proposed Initiative: Short Text (Maximum 15 words, for committee spreadsheet sorting and triage)
  10. Primary Focus Area of Proposed Initiative: Single-choice (Research Workflow / Tools, Curriculum / Pedagogy, Institutional Policy / Department Management, Cross-disciplinary Team Adoption, Other)
  11. Application Materials: File Upload (Single PDF containing Brief Bio, CV, Statement of Intent, and Letter of Support; file name format: AILA2027-LASTNAME-FIRSTNAME.PDF)
  12. Questions or Comments (Optional): Text / Long Text

Application Materials: File Upload (Single PDF containing Brief Bio, CV, Statement of Intent, and Letter of Support; file name format: AILA2027-LASTNAME-FIRSTNAME.PDF)

NISS Affiliate Discount: Applicants affiliated with a NISS member institution may be eligible for a registration discount. Please indicate your institutional affiliation below. Eligibility will be verified during the registration process, and the applicable discount will be applied to your registration fee. 

NISS Affiliate Status: Are you affiliated with a NISS member institution? 

Files must be less than 2 MB.
Allowed file types: pdf doc docx.