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Research Open Science Open Research Award

Winner 2026 - FoundersChat: An Interactive Portal for Open Research, Education, and Outreach.

Mark L. Thompson (Faculty of Arts) & Timo van Eldijk, Digital Competence Centre VPE Team, CIT

Open Research objectives/practices

  • Making the outputs of research freely available
  • Using open collaborative methods and tools
  • Capitalizing on unique open aspects of open educational resources
  • Promoting and facilitating Open Research and Education practices

Introduction

FoundersChat is an AI-powered research portal designed to foster research, teaching, and engagement with over 184,000 original documents (1706-1836) drawn from the Founders Online database at the US National Archives. Developed by historian Mark L. Thompson in collaboration with Timo van Eldijk (DCC) and the VPE Team at CIT, the online tool enables users to make queries in everyday natural language and to receive detailed answers drawn directly from the sources.

FoundersChat addresses Open Research and Education objectives by making research tools, software, and educational resources freely accessible to academia and society. By combining semantic search with AI-generated responses, the tool transforms an imposing keyword-based digital archive into an interactive portal that can answer the historical questions users actually have. To ensure its accuracy, the tool employs a rigorous Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) method that delivers evidence-based answers grounded strictly in original historical records with verifiable citations.

FoundersChat also serves as a model for digital privacy and institutional sovereignty in AI-based research software. Operating entirely on University of Groningen infrastructure, the tool employs a locally hosted large language model (LLM) and measures engagement with privacy-friendly EU-based analytics. It represents a fully functional, open-access resource for scholars, teachers, students, and the public across the world.

Motivation

From the beginning, our goal for FoundersChat was to create an openly accessible online tool that was useful for research, teaching, and public outreach. We also wanted it to be secure, private, and sustainably hosted on public infrastructure. We achieved these goals remarkably quickly. Within four months, the team behind FoundersChat took a custom application on a single PC and turned it into a robust web app running on a CIT server. Supported by a university press release and a feature article in the weekend edition of the Dagblad van het Noorden, we officially released FoundersChat to the public on the 4th of July 2026.

We decided to release the app on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence not only to attract public attention but also to highlight the value of this new resource for exploring the Founding Era. While the 184,000 documents at the heart of FoundersChat are already publicly available via Founders Online, navigating that popular database is a challenge for professional as well as amateur researchers. By contrast, FoundersChat allows users to ask open-ended questions and to receive detailed, balanced, source-driven answers that include citations and hyperlinks to the original documents. Moreover, if users are curious about a particular “founder,” they can interact with a virtual historical persona that draws directly from the collected papers of that figure. The combination of these features makes the tool appealing and useful to diverse users, whether they are curious about politics, slavery, women, Indians, science, religion or everyday life. In short, users decide for themselves what they will learn by interacting with the app.

Our platform analytics reveal that the app has already achieved notable public reach and impact since its release: over 260 unique visitors, averaging 8 minutes per visit, with select users interacting for 30 minutes or more. While most traffic originates in the Netherlands, one out of six users are based in the USA (and average nearly 16 minutes per visit). Users reach the app via search engines, social media platforms, and news coverage.

Looking forward, we aim to reach an even larger audience, especially educators who are seeking reusable Open Educational Resources to increase student engagement with early American history and civics. We hope and expect that the ongoing commemorations of the semiquincentennial will provide us with further opportunities to share this sovereign, open-access tool with the public.

URLs, references and further information

Last modified:24 October 2026 5.25 p.m.
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