AI Climate Grants

The Internet Society Foundation Research Grant Program 2026 funds innovative research that deepens understanding of the Internet and its impact on society, including AI-related topics. The program supports four thematic areas: Inclusive Internet (addressing digital access barriers, affordability, gender disparities), Greening the Internet (environmental impact, energy efficiency, AI sustainability), Measuring Meaningful Connectivity (digital participation metrics, emerging technologies), and Trustworthy Internet (cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, trust). The program places special emphasis on supporting applicants from the Global South and underrepresented communities, and accepts proposals in English, French, and Spanish. Applications are submitted through the Foundation's Fluxx grant management platform between April 7 and May 22, 2026. Research outcomes should inform public policy, industry decisions, and technology development. This is one of the larger non-governmental funding sources for research on the societal impacts of Internet technologies including AI.

ERCAP (Energy Research Computing Allocations Process) allocates compute time on NERSC's Perlmutter supercomputer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the world's largest GPU-based systems with over 7,000 NVIDIA A100 GPUs alongside AMD EPYC CPUs. ERCAP is the primary mechanism for the broader DOE Office of Science research community (and partner researchers) to access leadership-class GPU resources for AI/ML, foundation model training, scientific AI, climate AI, materials AI, and AI-coupled simulation. Annual allocation cycle: submissions typically open in August and close in early October, with allocations starting January 1 of the following year. The 2026-cycle ERCAP call closed October 8, 2026 for 2027 allocations. NERSC supports both pre-trained foundation model fine-tuning and pre-training campaigns, with a growing AI/ML user community. Recipients receive both compute hours and consultation from NERSC's NESAP for AI program providing hands-on optimization, MLOps support, and access to advanced features (interactive nodes, Jupyter at scale, ML-optimized storage). ERCAP complements DOE's INCITE (largest) and ALCC (mission-aligned) allocation pathways.

National Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (AI-CLIMATE) is sponsored by National Science Foundation and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This institute aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create more climate-smart practices that will absorb and store carbon while simultaneously boosting the economy in the agriculture and forestry industries.

DSI Seed Fund Program: Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research is sponsored by Columbia University - The Data Science Institute. Invests directly in faculty-led research through a competitive Seed Fund Program designed to cultivate new collaborations between data scientists and domain experts, promoting interdisciplinary inquiry aligned with university strategic priorities in AI, climate, mental health, a…

AI Institute for Climate-Land Interactions, Mitigation, Adaptation, Tradeoffs and Economy (AI-CLIMATE) is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF) and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This institute leverages artificial intelligence to create more climate-smart practices that will absorb and store carbon while simultaneously boosting the economy in the agriculture and forestry industries.

The UNICEF Venture Fund provides up to US$100,000 in equity-free seed funding to early-stage, for-profit technology startups in UNICEF programme countries (developing countries) that are developing solutions to improve the lives of children. The Fund focuses on frontier technologies including data science, machine learning, AI, and blockchain. Specific AI focus areas include using ML/AI techniques to understand the digital world and its dynamics, understanding relationships between variables that impact development indicators (learning, socio-economic, resilience, health), and applying optimization techniques to improve service delivery and resource allocation. The Fund runs multiple thematic open calls throughout the year including Data Science & AI, Climate & Health, FemTech, and Child Online Safety. Startups must be registered in a UNICEF programme country, have a viable working prototype, and commit to open-source licensing. Women-led startups, young founders, and founders from emerging markets are especially encouraged to apply. The UNICEF Venture Fund has invested in over 200 startups across more than 70 countries since 2016.

Artificial Intelligence Grant (NSF SBIR) is sponsored by NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. This grant supports small businesses in developing innovative AI technologies with significant commercial and societal impact. This includes AI systems, AI-based hardware, edge devices, cognitive science-based technologies, computer vision, conversational and language-based AI, sustainable AI, trustworthy AI, and AI technologies that lead to better hardware systems. The program funds early-stage R&D for deep technologies.

Climate Change AI (CCAI) awards seed grants supporting research, deployment, and the creation of datasets and tools at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. Grants of up to $150,000 fund one-year projects that must leverage AI/ML to address climate change mitigation, adaptation, or climate science, and must include creation of publicly available datasets and tools. Eligible areas span power and energy systems, agriculture and food systems, ecosystems and biodiversity monitoring, disaster management, climate science and modeling, and transportation and urban planning. The program is highly competitive, selecting roughly 12 projects from over 400 submissions worldwide, and has allocated $4.9 million to date.

Microsoft's AI for Earth program awards Azure cloud compute credits to support AI projects addressing environmental challenges. Compute credit grants are tiered at $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 depending on project scope, focused on four key program areas: agriculture (precision farming, crop monitoring, soil health AI); biodiversity (species detection, habitat mapping, wildlife conservation AI); climate change (emissions modeling, carbon accounting, climate adaptation AI); and water (water quality, drought prediction, watershed health AI). Beyond compute credits, grantees receive machine learning expertise, collaboration with Microsoft Research AI for Good Lab, mentorship, and access to the Microsoft Planetary Computer platform with petabytes of geospatial Earth observation data and APIs. Successful applicants typically have a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology, at least one team member with strong technical/ML skills, and are close to or finished with data collection ready for computation and model building. Applications are evaluated on quarterly rolling basis.

RAI UK Collaboration Grants is a grant from Responsible AI UK (RAI UK) that funds short-term collaborative research projects ensuring AI is deployed safely and responsibly across society. Priority focus areas include AI sustainability and energy demands, AI deployment cost-benefit methodologies, AI skills and public engagement, and AI engineering for dependable systems. Projects may be UK-domestic or international collaborations. Up to £200,000 is available across approximately 10 projects; individual awards are expected up to £20,000, with up to £50,000 available with exceptional justification. Grants are funded at 80% of full economic cost. Eligible lead applicants are UK UKRI-eligible higher education institutions and research organizations.

FY 2025 Regional Technology and Innovation Hub Program (Tech Hubs) is sponsored by U.S. Economic Development Administration. This program supports regional development focused on science and technology innovation, aiming to strengthen global competitiveness by investing in regions with the potential to become leaders in critical technologies such as AI, clean energy, biotechnology, and advanced manufa…

The Klarna AI for Climate Resilience Program funds organizations developing practical AI solutions to help vulnerable communities in lower-middle-income countries adapt to climate change. The program supports three categories of projects: (1) harnessing and elevating local knowledge by using AI to organize and analyze community insights into concise, actionable information; (2) developing novel AI applications for climate adaptation in real-world settings such as smartphone-based AI advisory systems for smallholder farmers and AI-powered climate-risk assessments for vulnerable regions; and (3) enhancing existing AI climate solutions through improved adoption, cost-effectiveness, sustainability, or by contributing open datasets and benchmarks. The program is administered through Milkywire and encourages early-stage ideas that need support to refine technical or implementation details. Currently funded projects include disaster resilience and compensation systems, water security and quality improvement using AI, agricultural adaptation and precision irrigation, climate advisory services, environmental data collection, and conservation access. The program represents a significant corporate commitment to deploying AI technology for climate adaptation where it is most needed.