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In 2012, a three-person team at the University of Toronto trained a neural network called AlexNet on two NVIDIA GTX 580 GPUs. The compute cost roughly $1,000. That work—funded by an NSERC grant and a Google Faculty Research Award—triggered the deep learning revolution. Today, training a frontier model can exceed $100 million.
The global pool of competitive AI funding now exceeds $30 billion annually. The U.S. federal government alone invested approximately $3.3 billion in non-defense AI R&D in FY2025, and the Department of Defense requested $13.4 billion for AI and autonomy in FY2026. Most of this funding goes to researchers who found it first—not researchers who deserved it most.
If you are a researcher in any field—biology, climate science, education, materials science, public health—who is integrating machine learning or AI methods into your work, this guide is written for you. Not for computer scientists. For the domain experts who are building the applications that actually matter.
| Your Field | Start Here | Also Check |
|---|---|---|
| Biomedicine & Health | NIH AI programs (Bridge2AI, NIBIB) | NSF BIO, SBIR Phase I |
| Climate & Environment | DOE AI for Science, AI Climate grants | NSF GEO, NOAA, Bezos Earth Fund |
| Agriculture & Food | USDA NIFA ($104M AI allocation) | NSF-USDA joint institutes |
| Defense & Security | DARPA BAAs (I2O, DSO, BTO) | IARPA, DOD CDAO, SBIR |
| Education & Workforce | NSF ExpandAI, Dept. of Education | Humanity AI coalition, IES |
| Materials & Engineering | DOE Genesis Mission, NSF ENG DCL | NIST, NSF MPS |
| AI Startup / Commercialization | NSF SBIR/STTR (20% success rate) | NIH SBIR, DOE SBIR, NVIDIA grants |
| AI Safety & Ethics | Open Philanthropy ($50M+/yr) | NSF SLES, Humanity AI, NIST CAISI |
DARPA
$314M core AI
I2O BAA, DSO BAA, BTO BAA, AI Forward, Young Faculty Award
Browse DARPA AI programs →DOE
$320M+ Genesis Mission
AI for Science, ModCon, 14 robotics projects, 37 foundational AI awards
Browse DOE AI grants →Four agencies dominate federal AI funding, but each operates with radically different priorities, review timelines, and success rates. Understanding these differences is the highest-leverage thing you can do before writing a word of your proposal.
NSF's flagship National AI Research Institutes program now funds 27 institutes across 40+ states, with five-year awards typically in the $16–20 million range. In July 2025, a $100 million infusion—co-funded by Capital One and Intel—stood up five new institutes and a community hub.
But the institutes are just the visible tip. NSF's CISE directorate funded 22% of proposals in FY2024 through programs like Safe, Trustworthy, and Responsible AI (SLES). The Engineering Directorate's Dear Colleague Letter for AI research opens doors for proposals that fall between disciplinary cracks—materials scientists using ML for alloy discovery, civil engineers deploying computer vision for bridge inspection, chemical engineers optimizing reactor design with reinforcement learning. If your work touches AI but you don't consider yourself an AI researcher, NSF's engineering DCL is probably your best entry point.
A program most applicants miss: the CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII), which provides $175,000 over two years to early-career researchers at non-R1 institutions. It is explicitly designed for investigators who lack the preliminary data and lab infrastructure that larger grants demand. For tenure-track faculty, the NSF CAREER Award remains the gold standard for AI researchers building their labs.
You do not pitch your idea to DARPA. You respond to a specific technical challenge that a program manager has spent months defining. The Information Innovation Office (I2O) runs a rolling Broad Agency Announcement covering proficient AI, resilient systems, and cyber operations. The Defense Sciences Office and Biological Technologies Office have their own BAAs that frequently include AI components.
What makes DARPA unique is speed. AI Exploration (AIE) opportunities use streamlined contracting to achieve a start date within three months of announcement. Performers then have 18 months to establish feasibility. Compare that to NSF's 6–12 month timeline from submission to award. The 2025 Young Faculty Award specifically targets early-career researchers at U.S. institutions, providing both funding and mentorship.
NIH does not have a single “AI grants” program. Instead, AI permeates virtually every institute and center, making it simultaneously the largest and hardest-to-navigate source of AI research funding. The reported $309 million in core AI R&D dramatically undercounts the real investment when you include bioinformatics, computational biology, and clinical decision support.
Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI), funded at $130 million over four years through the NIH Common Fund, represents the most deliberate AI investment—it funds interdisciplinary teams to generate ethically sourced, AI-ready datasets in voice biomarkers, cell morphology, and clinical decision-making. The AIM-AHEAD program targets institutions underrepresented in AI research. NIBIB funds AI for medical image analysis. The National Institute on Aging supports AI Technology Collaboratories for elderly care.
The key insight for domain scientists: NIH program officers want to fund the science, not the method. A cancer biologist using graph neural networks for drug-target interaction prediction is more competitive than a computer scientist proposing the same network architecture without the biological question. The R01 success rate sat at roughly 22% in FY2024, but early-career rates dropped to 18.5% in FY2025 due to budget disruptions. Less competitive mechanisms—R21 exploratory grants, SBIR/STTR (where NIH success rates exceed 20%)—all welcome AI-powered approaches.
DOE announced over $320 million for its Genesis Mission in 2025—the largest single-year AI commitment in the agency's history. The investment spans a Transformational AI Models Consortium building self-improving models for science; 14 projects in robotics, automated laboratories, and autonomous experiments; and 37 foundational AI awards for data curation and model development. Congress appropriated $150 million through September 2026, with 24 collaboration agreements including Google DeepMind.
DOE's comparative advantage is infrastructure. The agency operates the most powerful supercomputers on Earth—Aurora at Argonne, Frontier at Oak Ridge—and provides researchers access through allocation programs. For researchers whose work requires massive compute—training scientific foundation models, running molecular dynamics simulations, optimizing fusion reactor designs, or processing petabytes of climate data—DOE is often the only realistic funding path.
USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture received a $104 million AI allocation in FY2025 and co-funds NSF AI Research Institutes focused on agriculture. NIST launched the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI, formerly the AI Safety Institute) with $50 million and stood up $20 million in Centers for AI in Manufacturing. The DOD Chief Digital and AI Office grew from $10 million in FY2022 to $140 million in FY2025. Even agencies without dedicated AI programs—EPA, NOAA, the Department of Education—co-fund AI-related research through joint solicitations with NSF.
American researchers routinely leave international money on the table. Many of the world's largest AI funding programs explicitly welcome U.S. participants as consortium partners, and the dollar amounts rival anything available domestically.
EU Horizon Europe adopted a €14 billion work programme for 2026–2027, with AI as a cross-cutting priority. The GenAI4EU initiative has grown to nearly €700 million. The RAISE initiative has €107 million earmarked for foundation models in materials science and climate, with a €30 million call for foundation model development opening Q1 2026. U.S. institutions can participate as consortium members—they don't receive EU funding directly, but their involvement strengthens the proposal and they share in research infrastructure and data access. The mechanism: find a European lead partner, join their consortium, and your institution covers your own costs (often through a parallel NSF or DOE award).
The UK committed £1.6 billion in targeted AI funding through UKRI from 2026 to 2030—their largest single investment area. Initial priorities include £137 million for AI-enabled drug discovery and Turing AI Pioneer Fellowships worth up to £2.19 million each. Japan has pledged 10 trillion yen ($65 billion) in government funding through 2030 and quadrupled its chips-and-AI budget to ¥1.23 trillion ($7.9 billion) in FY2026. RIKEN's AIP Center and JST fund international collaborations. South Korea's AI budget stands at &won;0.88 trillion (~$640 million) for 2025, with a threefold increase proposed for 2026. Singapore committed S$1 billion to its National AI R&D Plan over five years and runs targeted bilateral grant calls with Korea and Israel, typically funding $500K–$1.2M per project.
Browse EU AI funding →The most significant development in AI funding in the past two years is the emergence of philanthropic coalitions operating at government scale. Humanity AI, announced in 2025, pools $500 million from ten foundations—MacArthur, Ford, Mellon, Mozilla, Omidyar Network, Packard, Doris Duke, Lumina, Kapor, and Siegel Family Endowment. The coalition targets five priority areas: advancing democracy, strengthening education, protecting artists, enhancing work, and defending personal security. Pooled-fund grants begin in 2026.
Open Philanthropy committed roughly $50 million to technical AI safety research in 2024 and launched a $40 million RFP covering 21 research directions—essentially a roadmap for the field. If you work on alignment, interpretability, or AI governance, Open Philanthropy is likely your most efficient funding path. OpenAI's People-First AI Fund distributed $40.5 million in unrestricted grants to 208 U.S. nonprofits, with nearly 3,000 applicants. It targets organizations with operating budgets between $500,000 and $10 million.
Search our foundation directory to find funders by focus area, giving level, and geography. Corporate programs run on different timelines. NVIDIA's Academic Grant Program provides H100 GPU hours and DGX Spark supercomputers—no cash, but compute that would cost six figures on the open market. Amazon Research Awards provide up to $70,000 plus $50,000 in AWS credits per PI. Microsoft's AFMR grants up to $20,000 in Azure credits with a dedicated program for HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions. Google, Amazon, and NVIDIA all run 4–8 week review cycles—compare that to 6–12 months for federal agencies. The tradeoff: faster decisions, fewer compliance burdens, but potential restrictions on publication or IP. Read the terms carefully.
NSF's CISE directorate funded 22% of proposals in FY2024. NSF Engineering funded 23%. NIH R01 grants succeeded at roughly 22% overall in FY2024, though early-career rates dropped to 18.5% in FY2025 amid budget disruptions. SBIR Phase I awards land at 17–20% across agencies, with NSF running the highest rate. SBIR Phase II jumps to approximately 60%—the best odds in federal grantmaking, if you can clear Phase I. See our success rate data for detailed breakdowns by agency and program.
Timeline planning: Federal grants require 6–18 months from conception to award. NSF proposals typically take 6–9 months from submission to decision. NIH runs three standard receipt dates per year (February, June, October) with 9–12 month review cycles. DARPA moves faster —3–6 months for AIEs. Foundation and corporate grants run 4–12 weeks. If you need funding in 12 months, you should be submitting federal proposals now while pursuing foundation funds as bridge financing.
Before writing a single word, call the program officer. This is not optional. Every agency expects it, and program officers will tell you directly whether your idea fits their portfolio. A 15-minute phone call can save you three months of wasted effort.
Common mistakes that kill AI proposals: leading with the technology instead of the problem it solves; claiming novelty without citing the state of the art; proposing a system without a clear evaluation plan; underestimating the budget for compute, data labeling, and IRB compliance; and neglecting Broader Impacts (NSF) or diversity statements (NIH). Reviewers reject more proposals for poor fit than for poor science.
How to Write a Winning AI Grant Proposal
Fundamentals of structuring compelling AI research proposals
AI Grant Budget Templates
Budget justification for GPU compute, data labeling, and cloud costs
AI Grant Resubmission Strategies
How to respond to reviewer feedback and strengthen your proposal
Writing AI Ethics Sections
Responsible AI and governance sections reviewers want to see
NSF CAREER Award Guide
The most prestigious early-career award for AI researchers at universities
How to Respond to a DARPA BAA
Navigate DARPA's unique proposal process and win defense AI contracts
Grant funding is only half the equation. Several programs provide the compute, data, and infrastructure that AI research demands—often at zero cost. Our complete guide to GPU credits and compute allocations covers every program in detail.
NAIRR
NSF-led pilot connecting 600+ research teams to shared AI infrastructure. Rolling proposals accepted. Eligibility: universities, nonprofits, federal labs, tribal agencies, startups with federal grants.
DOE INCITE & ALCC
81 projects awarded supercomputer time in 2025 across Aurora and Frontier. Millions of node-hours at no cost. 2026 Call for Proposals is open.
NSF ACCESS
Free supercomputing for any U.S. researcher or educator—with or without an existing grant. Four tiers from Explore to Maximize. ML and data science workloads welcome.
Cloud Research Credits
AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure run academic credit programs providing $5,000–$100,000 in compute. Typically non-competitive—apply and receive credits.
Stack these programs. A well-funded AI research group might hold an NSF award for personnel, an INCITE allocation for large-scale training, NAIRR access for datasets, cloud credits for deployment testing—each at zero dollars beyond the time to apply.
New AI funding opportunities, deadline alerts, and grant writing tips every Tuesday.
The AI grants landscape shifts every week. New solicitations drop, deadlines move, agencies restructure priorities. Granted tracks AI funding across every source covered in this guide—search by sub-field, eligibility, deadline, and funding level. Check grants closing soon or recently added opportunities to stay current. For a complete overview of how to navigate this landscape, see our AI researchers hub. For teams building AI-powered research workflows, our MCP server lets your AI assistant query the database directly, and the weekly newsletter delivers curated opportunities every Tuesday.
In 2012, AlexNet needed $1,000 and one grant. Your next breakthrough may need considerably more. The funding exists. The question is whether you find it before your competitors do.
Data sources: NITRD FY2025 Supplement, NSF funding rates, NIH Reporter, DOE press releases, EU Horizon Europe work programme. Last verified February 2026.
Leading Edge Acceleration Projects in Health Information Technology (LEAP in Health IT) (NAP-AX-22-001) - Special Emphasis Notice: Develop innovative ways to improve healthcare-data quality to support responsible development of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in healthcare. is sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). This funding opportunity seeks to develop innovative ways to evaluate and improve the quality of healthcare data used by artificial intelligence (AI) tools in healthcare. It also aims to accelerate the adoption of health IT in behavioral health settings.
Moonshot AI for Good Award is sponsored by Moonshot. The Moonshot AI for Good Award is designed for young changemakers building early-stage AI solutions with real-world impact. It focuses on technologies that can improve society and the environment while promoting responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence. Selected participants receive an equity-free grant, eligibility for additional funding, a two-year acceleration program, mentorship, and international exposure.
AI for Good Grant for Ethical and Socially Responsible AI Innovation is sponsored by Moonshot Platform (through fundsforNGOs). An award for young innovators, engineers, and coders aged 15 to 30 who are building AI solutions that create social good in areas such as education, healthcare, commerce, environmental protection, and community development.
239 matching grants · showing 30
NOAA SBIR Program is sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) SBIR. The NOAA SBIR Program funds small businesses developing innovative products with strong commercial potential that align with NOAA's mission areas. High priority is given to proposals integrating NOAA Science & Technology Focus Areas like Uncrewed Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Data and Cloud Computing. The FY25 Phase I solicitation is closed.
The Department of Defense FY2026 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) provides funding for U.S. universities to acquire research equipment and instrumentation in areas important to national defense, including AI and machine learning hardware. The program is administered jointly by the Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), with approximately $34 million available and 95 awards anticipated. DURIP funds the acquisition of specialized computing hardware for AI/ML research (GPU clusters, TPUs, neuromorphic processors), robotics and autonomous systems testbeds, sensor arrays and data collection systems for machine learning training, high-performance computing infrastructure for defense-relevant AI research, and laboratory equipment for human-AI interaction studies. The program specifically supports equipment that enhances research-related education in DoD-priority disciplines. While general-purpose computing is not eligible, computing equipment directly supporting DoD-relevant AI research programs qualifies. No cost sharing is required.
Human-Computer Interaction (HC) is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR. This topic supports entrepreneurs and startups in the early stages of developing innovative and novel Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) solutions. It focuses on designing computing systems that amplify human physical, cognitive, and social capabilities and translating research insights into commercializable applications. Technologies in this portfolio include multimedia and multimodal interfaces, brain-computer interfaces, intelligent and interactive user interfaces, affective computing, human state estimation, and methods for interaction with artificial intelligence.
AI in Agriculture Research Program is sponsored by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program funds research projects applying AI to improve agricultural practices, examining the contributions and impact of AI on agricultural market structure, international trade, production and resource use, consumer behavior, food safety, food waste and loss, farm labor, and policy. It also supports efforts to create and examine innovative approaches for advancing economic opportunities for rural entrepreneurs and communities.
Canada AI Compute Access Fund is a grant from Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada that funds small and medium-sized Canadian businesses accessing cloud-based AI compute resources to scale and commercialize innovative AI projects. The fund covers two-thirds of eligible costs for Canadian cloud-based compute and half of eligible costs for non-Canadian compute services. Individual project awards range from $100,000 to $5,000,000 in compute costs, from a total fund of up to $300 million. Eligible applicants are Canadian-registered, for-profit companies with fewer than 500 full-time employees engaged in AI research and development with a clear commercialization pathway.
The FY2026 Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education, with emphasis on multidisciplinary research where more than one traditional discipline interacts. The Army, Navy, and Air Force basic research offices are seeking applications across 22 topic areas including artificial intelligence and autonomy, information sensing and processing, and systems manipulation. MURI grants typically provide $1.25 million to $1.5 million per year for three years with option to extend two additional years. Approximately $170 million in total funding is available annually across all topics. The program is administered through the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Office (ARO), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).
The Department of Defense announced the Fiscal Year 2026 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), a major competitive funding program with $170 million total across 22 topic areas. MURI supports basic research in science and engineering at U.S. institutions of higher education with emphasis on multidisciplinary research efforts where more than one traditional discipline interacts to provide rapid advances in scientific areas of interest to the DoD. The program is jointly sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Topic areas span autonomous systems, AI and machine learning, quantum science, advanced materials, and other frontier research domains relevant to national defense. Individual MURI grants typically provide $1.25 million to $1.5 million per year for three years, with an option for two additional years. The funding opportunity number is W911NF25S0004. Optional white papers were due May 2, 2025, and full proposals are due September 5, 2025. MURI has operated for over 40 years and is one of the DoD's premier mechanisms for university-based fundamental research. The program emphasizes close management by Service Program Officers and requires true multidisciplinary collaboration.
Innovate UK's Sovereign AI Proof of Concept programme funds proof of concept demonstrators of AI technologies with state-of-the-art performance across five strategic themes: fundamental AI research, materials discovery, biosciences and health, defense and national security, and AI-aided chip/hardware design. Individual project grants range from £50,000 to £120,000 (approximately USD $63,500-$152,400) from a total allocation of at least £1.6 million. Projects must be 1-3 months in duration, starting by January 2026 and completing by March 2026. The programme supports feasibility studies and industrial research, with funding covering up to 70% of costs for micro/small businesses, 60% for medium, and 50% for large organizations. Literature review studies and projects unable to scale are excluded.
NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program is a grant from NVIDIA providing up to $60,000 per award to PhD students conducting research that advances accelerated computing and its applications. Now in its 25th year, the program invites nominations from doctoral students pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and related fields. Recipients receive not only research funding but also access to NVIDIA technology, products, and engineering expertise, along with a mandatory in-person summer internship. Students are nominated by their faculty advisors and selected based on academic achievement and research area alignment.
2025-2026 FRC Sponsorship Grants is a grant program from NASA's Robotics Alliance Project that funds rookie and second-year FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams to cover registration and equipment costs, enabling students to participate in the FRC competition season. NASA's support provides students with hands-on engineering challenges, transforming ideas into functioning robots while developing critical STEM skills, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. Grants cover registration fees and are targeted at teams in their first two years of competition who meet specific NASA eligibility criteria. Eligible applicants are first-year (rookie) and second-year FRC teams meeting program requirements. Award amounts vary based on team needs and program guidelines. Teams should apply through NASA's FRC grant application portal and submit early as processing is competitive.
The Robotics Grant Program is a grant from the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) that funds school-based robotics programs for elementary, middle, and high school students. Awarded through a competitive application process, the program provides up to $3,500 to eligible local education agencies (LEAs) in Alabama. Applicants must be public school systems submitting on behalf of schools with K–12 students. The grant supports the purchase of robotics equipment and program development aligned with AMSTI guidelines. Applications are submitted online through the AMSTI Robotics Grant portal. The Fiscal Year 2026 application deadline was September 30, 2025. Questions should be directed to robotics@amsti.org. The program is managed by the Alabama State Department of Education under State Superintendent Eric G. Mackey.
Smart Health and Biomedical Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Data Science (SCH) is sponsored by NSF CISE. Supports the development of transformative high-risk, high-reward advances in computer and information science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, behavioral and/or cognitive research to address pressing questions in the biomedical and public health communities.
CIFAR and the Canadian AI Safety Institute fund Catalyst Project proposals addressing sociotechnical considerations in AI safety. The program supports interdisciplinary research in machine learning applications to science and society, with recent funded projects spanning misinformation combat, trustworthy language models, democratic alignment of AI systems, Indigenous AI governance, and real-world safety in autonomous systems. Designed to catalyze new research areas and collaborations at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and AI safety.
AI Research Collaboration Grant is sponsored by Microsoft Research. This program invites proposals from faculty, PhD students, and postdocs for open research collaborations with Microsoft Research on problems that advance scientific understanding, drive innovation, and deliver societal benefit in AI, science, and human-AI collaboration. Awards are unrestricted gifts to the scholar's institution and include travel funding for in-person collaboration.
Vinnova, Sweden's national innovation agency, funds projects developing applied AI solutions for Swedish industry through its Advanced Digitalization Programme. Each project can apply for between 2 and 10 million SEK (approximately $190,000 to $950,000 USD) covering up to 50% of eligible project costs. The total call budget is 60 million SEK. Projects run for 12-24 months and focus on two key areas: Intelligent Edge (AI for real-time application in the sensor chain) and AI-based decision support. All projects must address industrial needs and integrate gender equality and climate change perspectives. Scientific publications must be open access. A parallel call also funds AI and cybersecurity projects at 1-10 million SEK per project with a 50 million SEK total budget.
The DOE ASCR Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC) provides allocations of computing time on the nation's most powerful supercomputers for high-risk, high-payoff scientific campaigns aligned with DOE priorities. For the 2026-2027 cycle, available resources include 20 million node-hours on Frontier (exascale, Oak Ridge), 16 million node-hours on Aurora (exascale, Argonne), 1 million node-hours on Polaris (Argonne), and 3.5 million combined CPU and GPU node-hours on Perlmutter (NERSC, with 7,000+ NVIDIA A100 GPUs). ALCC projects span modeling, simulation, artificial intelligence, and data analysis. New for 2026-2027: multi-year proposals of up to three years are accepted, and the process has been simplified to a single proposal without a pre-proposal stage. The estimated commercial value of allocations ranges from $500,000 to $10 million or more per project depending on scale. The 2026-2027 application deadline was January 26, 2026; the program cycles annually with the next call expected November 2026.
Hoffman-Yee Grant is a grant from Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) that funds interdisciplinary research teams at Stanford University advancing human-centered AI across three focus areas: developing novel intelligence technologies, designing AI that augments rather than replaces humans, and understanding and guiding the societal impact of AI. Proposals must address significant scientific, technical, or societal challenges requiring interdisciplinary collaboration. Letters of Intent were due January 28, 2026. The 2026 cycle particularly invites proposals leveraging AI to drive advances in scientific discovery. Eligible applicants are Stanford faculty-led interdisciplinary teams.
The IAPS AI Policy Fellowship is a fully funded three-month program for professionals seeking to strengthen practical policy skills and contribute to impactful projects in AI governance and policy. The Summer 2026 cohort runs from June to August 2026 with options to participate in Washington DC or remotely. The program begins with a two-week in-person residency in Washington DC followed by remote or in-person work with weekly mentorship and career development support. Fellows work full-time on independent AI policy projects covering areas such as AI regulation compute governance international AI agreements AI safety policy AI workforce impacts and responsible AI deployment. The fellowship received 240 applications for the 2026 cohort representing a 35 percent increase over 2025. IAPS is a remote-first organization and legally supports fellows in many countries. This fellowship is distinct from the Vista Institute for AI Policy Fellowship which focuses specifically on AI law and from the Cooperative AI Foundation fellowships which focus on multi-agent cooperation problems.
The NSF Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences (CAIG) program (NSF 25-530) funds interdisciplinary research teams that advance Earth system science through innovative AI methods. Jointly managed by NSF's Directorate for Geosciences (GEO/RISE), Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (CISE/IIS), Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CISE/OAC), and Division of Mathematical Sciences (MPS/DMS), the program supports projects that push the boundaries of both geoscience and AI. Each competition allocates $6 million to $10 million across 5-9 awards for projects lasting up to 3 years. Funded projects must demonstrate three core objectives: advancing geoscience research through AI, making impactful advancements in AI methodologies applicable to geosciences, and forming meaningful interdisciplinary partnerships involving diverse teams of 2-3 lead senior/key personnel. The solicitation covers both a 2025 and 2026 competition, with the 2026 full proposal deadline of February 4, 2026. The program supports work in climate modeling, weather prediction, ocean science, atmospheric science, and other geoscience domains where AI can enable significant breakthroughs. Future competition cycles are anticipated under subsequent solicitations.
The Kavli Foundation sponsors an AI-for-Science Postdoctoral Fellowship through FutureHouse's Independent Postdoctoral Fellowship program, supporting one fellow per cohort to pursue an independent, AI-enabled research project in neuroscience. The fellowship provides a $125,000 annual stipend plus comprehensive benefits, travel allowance for conferences, dedicated software engineering support for building AI research tools, access to advanced computational resources (GPU clusters and cloud computing), and wet lab access for experimental validation. Fellows work in collaboration with an advisor or co-advisor who is a member of a Kavli Institute, pursuing bold, curiosity-driven projects in neuroscience ranging from molecular and cellular mechanisms to systems-level understanding of the brain. The fellowship begins September 2026 and runs for one year with a possible one-year extension. Research areas include AI-driven analysis of brain imaging data, machine learning for neural circuit mapping, computational neuroscience models, AI tools for analyzing large-scale neural recordings, and deep learning applied to connectomics and brain-computer interfaces.
2026 DOE Scholars Program is sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE Scholars Program offers undergraduate and graduate students, as well as recent graduates, opportunities to gain hands-on experience and contribute to projects in various fields, including Artificial Intelligence. Participants can explore career paths within the DOE complex.
Call for Effective Technology (CET) 2026-27 is a grant from Accelerate that funds the development, implementation, and evaluation of AI-powered and tech-enabled educational tools for public school students. Grants of $150,000 to $250,000 support organizations with tools ready for deployment in the 2026-27 school year that are grounded in learning science and evidence-based practices, with a focus on improving math and reading outcomes and ensuring equitable access for diverse student populations. Applicants must have tools currently in active use with at least 500 students across at least two schools during the school day, and must be prepared to share student-level data for rigorous evaluation. Applications were due February 20, 2026. Eligible applicants include EdTech developers, tutoring providers, curriculum developers, EdTech accelerators, and school districts or charter management organizations.
Call for Effective Technology (CET) is a grant from Accelerate that funds education technology organizations developing and evaluating AI-powered and tech-based tools for use in K-12 public schools. The program seeks tools grounded in established learning science that are ready to deploy in schools for the 2026-27 school year, with particular focus on improving math and reading outcomes and ensuring equitable access. Awards range from $150,000 to $250,000. Eligible applicants include edtech developers (nonprofit and for-profit), curriculum developers, tutoring providers, school districts, CMOs, and EdTech accelerators. The application deadline was February 20, 2026.
Call for Effective Technology (CET) 2026-27 is a grant from Accelerate that funds the development, implementation, and evaluation of AI-powered and educational technology tools for use in public school classrooms during the 2026-27 school year. The program prioritizes tools that enable personalized learning and instructional effectiveness, with a particular focus on improving academic outcomes in mathematics and reading while ensuring equitable access across diverse student populations. Eligible applicants include edtech developers, schools, districts, and nonprofits whose tools are grounded in established learning science, already deployed in real classrooms, and can demonstrate a clear theory of action. Awards range from ,000 to ,000. The application deadline was February 20, 2026.
Accelerate Call for Effective Technology (CET) Program is a grant from Accelerate that identifies and funds the development, implementation, and evaluation of AI-powered and educational technology tools for use in K-12 public schools. The program prioritizes tools that enable personalized learning and instructional effectiveness, especially in mathematics and reading, with a focus on equitable access across diverse student populations. Awards range from $150,000 to $250,000. Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations developing AI-enabled edtech tools currently deployed in schools. The application deadline was February 20, 2026.
The ARPA-E CATALCHEM-E (Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently) program pairs artificial intelligence and machine learning with autonomous self-driving laboratories to dramatically accelerate industrial heterogeneous catalyst development for fuels and chemicals production. The program aims to achieve more than a ten-times acceleration in the catalyst development cycle, completing 10-15 years of traditional work within 12-18 months. Key technical areas include autonomous and automated high-throughput experimentation methods, AI/ML-ready databases, multi-scale modeling, and surrogate AI/ML-assisted computational modeling for reactor performance and reaction mechanism elucidation.
Spectrum Digital Education Grants is a funding program from Charter Communications (Spectrum) that supports nonprofits providing digital skills training, professional advancement opportunities, and technology resources for education. The program focuses on helping families and seniors gain digital literacy, including AI skills, in communities served by Spectrum across its 41-state service area. Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status whose programs focus on digital education for families or seniors in Spectrum markets. The application period for the current cycle closed February 27, 2026.
AI for Health Seed Grant is sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis (AI for Health Institute). This seed grant program supports innovative and interdisciplinary research that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to address critical challenges in health, encouraging collaborations across AI and public health/healthcare domains. Projects must bring together researchers from at least two different schools within Washington University in St. Louis.
AI for Health Seed Funding Program is a grant from the AI for Health Institute and Washington University in St. Louis supporting innovative, interdisciplinary research that applies artificial intelligence to critical health challenges. Projects must bring together WashU faculty from at least two schools — one from AI and one from health — forming genuine collaborative teams. The program runs annually and requires proposals from full-time faculty co-PIs who are current on reporting from prior university seed grants. Awards are intended to catalyze new interdisciplinary partnerships and generate preliminary data for larger external funding pursuits.
AI for Health Seed Funding Program is sponsored by AI for Health Institute and Washington University in St. Louis Research Development Office. This seed grant program supports innovative and interdisciplinary research that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to address critical challenges in health. It is designed to catalyze collaborations across disciplines, encouraging the integration of AI with public health and healthcare, and requiring projects to bring together researchers from AI and health domains.
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Ten foundations pooled $500M for a five-year people-centered AI initiative. The first $18M tranche — $8M to 12 inaugural grantees at $500K each, $3M to AI Civics, $10M open call this summer — locks in the doctrinal frame nonprofits will need to fit.
Read articleThe Water Research Foundation's RFP 5394 — up to $200,000 to evaluate GenAI and Agentic AI scalability across at least six water and wastewater utilities, NIST AI RMF integration required, proposals due 3 p.m. Mountain Time on May 20 — is the first major sector-utility-funded AI research initiative to bake risk-management framework compliance into the work statement. Four days remain.
Read articleQ1 2026 saw $242 billion flow to AI startups — more than every VC dollar invested in 2019. Meanwhile, NSF faces a proposed 55% cut and NIH success rates hit a 30-year low. How the AI funding chasm is reshaping research strategy for academic scientists and small businesses.
Read articleQ1 2026 shattered venture funding records with $300 billion deployed globally — 80% to AI. Meanwhile, federal non-defense AI R&D sits at $3.3 billion, a fraction of what the National Security Commission recommended. What the great divergence means for grant-funded researchers.
Read articleOpenAI's $122 billion round dwarfs the $3.3 billion the U.S. spends on non-defense AI R&D. The National Security Commission recommended $32 billion by now. We're at one-tenth of that target. What the private-public AI funding gulf means for researchers.
Read articleMassachusetts launched GrantWell, a free AI tool that helps municipalities find and write federal grant applications. Other states are following. Here's what it means for the $1 trillion grants ecosystem.
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