AI Grant Deadlines Calendar: Every Major Deadline Through 2027

Missing an AI grant deadline by a single day costs exactly the same as never applying at all. With federal agencies, the European Commission, and defense programs each running on their own submission calendars — some quarterly, some annual, some rolling — the scheduling alone can sink a promising proposal before the science even gets evaluated.

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What follows is a working calendar of the major recurring AI-related grant deadlines from now through the end of 2027, organized by agency, with enough detail on dollar amounts and solicitation mechanics to help you decide where to invest your writing time.

NSF: Three Distinct Clocks for AI Researchers

The National Science Foundation runs the largest civilian AI research portfolio in the U.S., but its deadlines are scattered across programs that operate on different rhythms.

CISE Future Computing Research (Future CoRe) is the primary home for computer science and AI proposals. The program funds Small projects (up to $600,000 over three years) and Medium projects ($600,001 to $1,200,000 over four years) through the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems. Small proposals can be submitted at any time with no fixed deadline — NSF eliminated the hard cutoff in 2020 to reduce submission clustering. Medium proposals follow target dates: September 10, 2026 and February 4, 2027 for the next two review panels. Missing a target date does not disqualify you, but your proposal waits for the following panel cycle, adding months to the timeline. Program details are at nsf.gov/cise/iis.

National AI Research Institutes represent NSF's largest single AI investments, with awards of $16 million to $20 million over four to five years. These competitions run on an irregular schedule — the most recent round funded through NSF 23-610, and the next solicitation has not yet been released. Historically, new institute competitions open every 18 to 24 months. Monitor nsf.gov/focus-areas/ai/institutes for the next announcement.

NSF SBIR/STTR maintains artificial intelligence as a named topic area, covering machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and robotics. Phase I awards run up to $275,000 over 12 months; Phase II awards up to $1 million over 24 months. However, SBIR/STTR congressional authorization expired on September 30, 2025, and as of this writing Congress has not reauthorized the program. Agencies continue to process existing awards, but new solicitations may be delayed or suspended until legislation passes. Track the status at sbir.gov.

NIH: The Three-Cycle Calendar That Never Changes

NIH operates on the most predictable submission schedule in the federal system. For investigator-initiated research grants — the R01, R21, and R03 mechanisms that fund the bulk of AI-in-biomedicine work — the standard receipt dates repeat identically every year:

• Cycle I: February 5 (new), March 5 (resubmission/renewal)
• Cycle II: June 5 (new), July 5 (resubmission/renewal)
• Cycle III: October 5 (new), November 5 (resubmission/renewal)

These dates hold for both 2026 and 2027. When a receipt date falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day. The full schedule is published at grants.nih.gov/grants-process/submit/submission-policies/standard-due-dates.

For AI-specific research, the most active NIH programs are at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), which funds machine learning, deep learning, and AI methods for medical imaging and diagnostics, and the Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) program under the NIH Common Fund, a $130 million initiative building ethically sourced datasets for AI training in biomedicine. Bridge2AI advanced to its Stage 2 in January 2026, which will include new funding opportunities through a competitive innovation funnel. Watch for announcements at commonfund.nih.gov/bridge2ai/funding.

The practical implication of three annual cycles: if you miss February 5, your next shot is June 5 — a four-month gap during which competing labs may file overlapping proposals. NIH reviewers see your application roughly five months after submission, with funding decisions nine months out. Work backward from those timelines.

DARPA: Rolling BAAs With Hard Ceilings

DARPA does not operate on a traditional grant calendar. Instead, each technical office maintains an Office-Wide Broad Agency Announcement that accepts proposals on a rolling basis throughout the fiscal year.

The Information Innovation Office (I2O) BAA (HR001126S0001) is the primary entry point for AI proposals. I2O's stated thrust areas include transformative AI, resilient software systems, cybersecurity, and information domain operations. Abstracts are due by November 1, 2026, at 5:00 PM ET, with invited full proposals due November 30, 2026. DARPA reviews abstracts for relevance first — only invited proposers may submit full proposals. Incremental work is explicitly rejected; the agency wants approaches that redefine the state of the art.

The Biological Technologies Office (BTO) BAA accepts abstracts on a rolling basis through September 30, 2026, covering AI and machine learning applied to biological sciences, from synthetic biology to autonomous laboratory systems.

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) runs the Young Faculty Award (YFA), which funds junior investigators exploring fundamental research including AI and autonomy. The FY 2026 deadline was January 20, 2026; the FY 2027 cycle typically opens in late fall.

All DARPA solicitations are posted at sam.gov and darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities. Award sizes vary enormously — from $500,000 for a YFA to tens of millions for a full program.

DOE: Genesis Mission and the $500 Million Open Door

The Department of Energy committed $320 million to the Genesis Mission in December 2025, with an additional $150 million appropriated by Congress for transformational AI models through September 2026. But the broadest current entry point for university researchers is not a Genesis-specific solicitation — it is the FY 2026 Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (DE-FOA-0003600), a $500 million umbrella solicitation open through September 30, 2026.

AI proposals fit naturally under the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program area, which funds applied mathematics, computer science, and AI fundamentals for science. Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) also actively funds machine learning for plasma physics.

ARPA-E runs its own SBIR/STTR program and periodic focused solicitations. The next broad OPEN competition — historically ARPA-E's largest single funding event — is expected in 2027 based on the agency's three-year cycle. Monitor arpa-e-foa.energy.gov for announcements.

Horizon Europe: EUR 2 Billion in AI Across 2026-2027

The European Commission's Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2026-2027 represents the final major funding cycle of the current framework, with an estimated EUR 2 billion directed toward AI-related topics across all clusters.

Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry and Space) is the most AI-dense, with two digital calls totaling EUR 307 million. The first call, HORIZON-CL4-2026-04, allocates EUR 221.8 million across 15 topics covering trustworthy AI services, data processing sustainability, robotics, and quantum technologies. The second, HORIZON-CL4-2026-05, adds EUR 85.5 million across 3 topics. Both have a submission deadline of April 15, 2026.

Industry-pillar calls under Cluster 4 add another EUR 417 million: HORIZON-CL4-2026-01 (EUR 319 million, 15 topics, single-stage) and HORIZON-CL4-2026-02 (EUR 98 million, 3 topics, two-stage). The two-stage call opens September 22, 2026, with a full proposal deadline of February 2, 2027.

AI topics also appear in Cluster 1 (Health), including predictive biomarkers using AI and AGI approaches for healthcare, and in the horizontal AI in Science call allocating approximately EUR 90 million to networks of excellence and automated scientific discovery.

All calls are published on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Eligibility extends to entities in EU Member States, associated countries, and — for many calls — partner nations including the UK, Canada, and others with framework participation agreements.

Building a Submission Calendar That Works

The deadlines above create natural clustering. February and October are the heaviest months for NIH submissions. September and April carry NSF and Horizon Europe peaks. DARPA and DOE run on longer rolling windows that reward early engagement over deadline sprints.

The most effective approach is working backward: identify three to four target programs, map their review-to-award timelines (nine months for NIH, six to twelve for NSF, highly variable for DARPA), and stagger your writing so no two proposals compete for the same month of preparation time.

With deadlines shifting across agencies, programs reauthorizing, and new solicitations dropping without warning, keeping a live calendar is the difference between a funded lab and a missed cycle — and that ongoing tracking is exactly what Granted was built to handle.