Climate Change AI Innovation Grants for Machine Learning Applied to Climate Action

The Climate Change AI Innovation Grants program supports projects that address research and deployment challenges in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and climate science by leveraging AI and machine learning, while also creating publicly available datasets and tools to catalyze further work. The program enables key partnerships that accelerate the research-to-deployment cycle, creating synergies between academic researchers, nonprofits, startups and other companies, and governmental or intergovernmental organizations. Funded by the Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and Google DeepMind, with Future Earth serving as fiscal sponsor, this is one of the few dedicated grant programs specifically targeting the intersection of AI/ML and climate change. Projects typically involve climate modeling, weather prediction, emissions monitoring, energy optimization, biodiversity monitoring, and other environmental applications of machine learning. The 2026 competition opens with a full proposal deadline of September 15, 2026. The program has grown steadily since its inception, funding 23 projects to date across diverse climate domains and geographies.

The Climate Change AI Innovation Grants program supports catalytic projects using AI and machine learning for climate action, funding research and deployment challenges in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and climate science. Projects must create publicly available datasets and tools as digital public goods, and release open-source code. The program builds partnerships between academic researchers, non-profits, startups, companies, and governmental organizations to accelerate the research-to-deployment cycle. Past funded projects span climate modeling, emissions monitoring, renewable energy optimization, and disaster prediction across all continents.

The Halcyon Africa Innovation in Agriculture and Food Security Accelerator supports early-stage, impact-driven ventures across Sub-Saharan Africa that are strengthening agriculture and food systems through market-based solutions. The 2027 cohort is open for applications until 23 October 2026. Technology is explicitly central to the scope: the programme welcomes tech-enabled agriculture and food security solutions across ten priority sectors, including agricultural data platforms, digital extension services, precision agriculture tools and agri-fintech innovations, all areas where AI and machine learning are typically the core of a competitive product. Each selected venture receives a 10,000 US dollar equity-free stipend and 10,000 dollars in Amazon Web Services credits, together with access to Halcyon's community of more than 650 founders, professional advisory support, expert-led workshops covering leadership development, capital strategy and product-market fit, and investor networking. The format is hybrid, combining virtual sessions with in-person residencies in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya. What distinguishes this from most AI-for-agriculture funding is the applicant profile: it targets commercial ventures with working products and demonstrated traction rather than research teams, requiring paid-pilot or post-revenue stage with a working minimum viable product. For African AgTech founders building AI-driven advisory, monitoring or decision-support tools who have passed the prototype stage and need capital strategy support and investor access more than research funding, this is a well-matched and currently open opportunity.