January 2026 Building Evidence RFP (Discontinued)

Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System is sponsored by Laura And John Arnold Foundation. This program supports causal research designed to build credible evidence on policies, practices, and interventions that can improve community safety and make the justice system fairer and more effective. Geographic focus: United States Focus areas: Criminal Justice, Community Safety

HMGCC Co-Creation and Dstl are seeking an edge device that processes video and audio from off-the-shelf smart glasses and stitches frames into high-fidelity 3D maps for reconnaissance. The minimum deliverable is a TRL 4 proof of concept. AI, computer vision and machine learning are listed technology themes, for example algorithms that compensate for head movement while stitching frames. Essential requirements are a report on where smart-glasses data flows and who can access it, good daytime urban imagery, and a camera-based 3D map. Desirable features include low-light imaging, audio fusion, testing across several manufacturers and a three-year manufacturer roadmap, and the stretch goal is fusing audio and visual data to handle reflections and solid walls. Redesigning or physically modifying the glasses is out of scope, and data handling must comply with GDPR and manufacturer terms. The total budget is up to £60,000, about US$80,000, excluding VAT, with on average two providers funded for a 12-week project. Questions are due 29 October, pitch day is 25 November, and kick-off is targeted for January 2027. Applications close on 12 November 2026 at 17:00 UK time.

HMGCC Co-Creation and Dstl are seeking proof-of-concept small robots that can move through confined built environments across at least two of water, land and air, at TRL 4 or above. Essential requirements are a payload of at least 100 g, a demonstration in a representative built-environment scenario, and a final report with a development roadmap. Desirable features include operation in all three domains, up to one hour of operation, autonomous navigation, operation with intermittent GNSS, travel through ducts or pipes, a volume under 0.01 cubic metres and a mass under 1 kg. Humans must keep responsibility for operational decisions, and the system must not depend on continuous public cloud access. Funding is up to £60,000, about US$80,000, excluding VAT, and on average two providers are funded per challenge. The call opened on 12 October 2026. Applicants are notified on 23 November, pitch day is 7 December, and kick-off is targeted for January 2027 for a project of about 10-12 weeks. Applications close on 12 November 2026 at 17:00 UK time.

The DARPA Surgical Competition (DSC) is a $3.5 million prize challenge run by DARPA's Biological Technologies Office under 10 U.S.C. 4025. Its goal is to advance robotic and AI-enabled surgical systems that can deliver trauma care closer to the point of injury with fewer specialists available. There are two lanes. Lane 1, surgical collaboration, covers robots that assist a surgeon. Lane 2, surgical independence, covers robots performing surgical tasks with increasing autonomy. In each lane, first place wins $1 million, second $400,000, and third $100,000. Component gate prizes are $235,000 for the top Physical Capability Gate performer, $100,000 for the Rapid Learning Gate, and $75,000 for the Medical Knowledge Gate, and teams meeting each gate's minimums receive $3,000 per gate. Up to 10 teams will qualify. The qualification window runs from 11 September 2026 and closes on 13 November 2026 at 4 PM ET, with rolling review. The schedule also includes a virtual second industry day on 4 November 2026, an in-person workshop on 15-24 January 2027, and the scored competition on 20-26 March 2027. Teams are self-funded, and there is no full proposal and no cost share.

Innovate UK is investing up to £1.66 million in Phase 1 of Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems. It funds experimental validation of novel mechanistic AI, where the main technical advance is a new learning mechanism, adaptive architecture, causal model, graph-native or compositional mechanism, or a mechanism giving measurable control over an agent. Applicants choose one theme: resource and data adaptive learning (active, continual and data-efficient learning), causal and intervention-grounded models, learned modular computation and routing, or geometric, equivariant and physics-structured learning. Routine tool integration, prompt engineering, generic agent orchestration and routine GNN application are out of scope. Projects have total eligible costs of £50,000-£150,000, funded at up to 70% for micro and small firms, start at TRL 1-3, and run 1-3 months, starting by 1 April 2027 and ending by 30 June 2027. A Phase 2 may follow but has no allocated funding yet. The estimated success rate is about 4%. The competition opened 12 October 2026, applicants are notified on 20 January 2027, and applications close 18 November 2026 at 11:00am UK time.

Art Grant Program is sponsored by The Macoupin Art Collective (Regional Arts Partner of Illinois Arts Council). Provides funding to empower individuals, groups, and organizations to bring arts-focused projects to life. Grants range from $500 to $2,500 with no application fee. Every funded project must include a public presentation or community service component. Applications open October 1, 2026, with a deadline of November 30, 2026. Award notifications will be sent January 5, 2027.

Verizon Small Business Digital Ready $10,000 National Grant is sponsored by Verizon, in partnership with LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation). This program is part of Verizon's commitment to equip small businesses with tools and resources to thrive in the digital economy. Ten small businesses are selected monthly to receive $10,000 grants. Applicants need to complete any two free courses or events on the Digital Ready platform to unlock the application.

Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant is a grant from the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation that funds individual painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have worked in a mature phase of their art for 20 or more years and demonstrate current financial need. Each year, the foundation awards 20 grants of $25,000 each, reviewed by a panel of five independent arts professionals. Applicants who have previously received the grant three or more times are not eligible. Organizations, students, graphic artists, craft practitioners, and photographers (unless the work involves painting or sculpture) are ineligible. Applications for the 2026 cycle are accepted from October 15, 2025 through January 15, 2026.

TechAccess: AI-Ready America establishes State and Territory Coordination Hubs to help organisations across each state become ready to adopt AI, funded at 1 million US dollars per year for three years with a possible fourth, against total programme funding of 168 to 224 million US dollars and up to 56 awards, one per state, the District of Columbia or territory. NSF runs it in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Small Business Administration, and that partner list is the most informative feature of the solicitation: it signals that AI adoption by farmers and agricultural small businesses, by workers and by small firms generally is a first-class target rather than an afterthought, and it gives hubs in agricultural states a direct line to USDA-NIFA resources. The programme has three components. State and Territory Coordination Hubs, the subject of this competition, act as local coordination entities providing AI readiness support through resource navigation, strategic planning, deployment assistance, training coordination and sector-specific engagement. A National Coordination Lead provides national strategy, hub support, knowledge sharing and deployment network management, funded separately through an Other Transaction Agreement. AI-Ready Catalyst Award competitions, announced separately, will pilot topic-driven approaches for potential national scaling. Three application rounds are planned: Round 1 letters of intent closed 16 June 2026 with full proposals 16 July 2026; Round 2 letters of intent are due 15 December 2026 with full proposals 15 January 2027; Round 3 letters of intent 1 June 2027 with full proposals 1 July 2027.

TechAccess: AI-Ready America (NSF 26-508) is a national initiative to accelerate artificial intelligence readiness and adoption across the United States through three coordinated components. First, State and Territory Coordination Hubs: up to 56 awards, at most one per state, the District of Columbia or US territory, funding a statewide convening entity that manages AI learning navigation, strategic planning, deployment support, training coordination and sector-specific initiatives. Second, a National Coordination Lead that supports the hubs, enables knowledge sharing, manages an AI Deployment Network, engages industry and philanthropy, and coordinates sector strategies. Third, AI-Ready Catalyst Award competitions, which are topic-driven competitions piloting innovative approaches intended for national scaling. The estimated programme budget is 168,000,000 to 224,000,000 US dollars, with per-award funding of about 1,000,000 dollars per year for three years and the possibility of one additional year for phase-out or transition planning. The solicitation runs in three rounds with required Letters of Intent: Round 1 LOI 16 June 2026 and full proposal 16 July 2026; Round 2 LOI 15 December 2026 and full proposal 15 January 2027; Round 3 LOI 1 June 2027 and full proposal 1 July 2027, all at 5 p.m. local time. The Letter of Intent is required, not advisory, so missing it forecloses the round. The structural logic is distinctive among NSF programmes: this is a coordination and capacity-building network closer in shape to an extension or Manufacturing USA model than to a research directorate solicitation, and proposals are evaluated on statewide convening credibility as much as on technical merit. The recorded deadline of 15 December 2026 is the Round 2 Letter of Intent, the next actionable date.