Grants for Researchers

This Grand Challenges call, administered by the Science for Africa Foundation with the Gates Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and the Pasteur Network, funds African-led projects applying artificial intelligence and specifically large language models to health challenges, at up to 100,000 US dollars for up to 12 months. It was a follow-up to an initial Gates Foundation call and ran with country-specific portals for Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa alongside the pan-African route. Five application areas are named: clinical decision support for diagnosis and healthcare delivery; population health and policymaking through data insights; frontline health worker coaching and workflow management; health communications bridging language and literacy gaps; and health systems strengthening and data interoperability. The defining feature is the equity architecture rather than the science scope. The lead investigator must be based in Africa, at least 80 per cent of funding must reach an organisation in the geography of interest, and women-led organisations are particularly encouraged; research organisations, NGOs and implementers are all eligible. That combination makes it one of the clearer examples of a Global South AI funding instrument designed to place decision-making and budget authority locally rather than routing them through Northern intermediaries. This round closed on 7 November 2023, but Grand Challenges calls recur and the SFA Foundation has continued to expand its AI and data science portfolio; the structure here is a reliable template for what African-led AI health calls require. Applicants should watch the SFA Foundation funding page and the Grand Challenges portal for successor rounds.

This Singapore-South Korea bilateral call, run jointly by AI Singapore and Korea's IITP, funds one joint research team to develop AI-assisted microclimate models that address the urban heat island effect. AISG funds the Singapore side up to S$1,500,000 and IITP the Korean side up to 1,500,000,000 won, each over a maximum of three years, for a total above S$3,000,000; the funded project runs 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2027. The named scope covers multi-scale microclimate modelling at district and neighbourhood level, validation against real-world datasets, AI-based design recommendations to mitigate the urban heat island effect, and quantification of impact in carbon and cost savings. Two eligibility conditions shape who can realistically compete: the team must be led by one principal investigator from Singapore and one from South Korea, with Singapore applicants drawn from local Institutes of Higher Learning or Research Institutes, and the consortium must include at least one industry partner from each country. That industry requirement is the distinguishing feature against otherwise comparable academic climate-AI programmes, and it pushes the call toward teams with existing municipal, property or utilities relationships. This is a useful reference point for the AISG-IITP bilateral format, which has now run across multiple thematic rounds with consistent mechanics: one team funded, three-year term, S$1.5M Singapore ceiling, mandatory binational leadership. Teams tracking future rounds should watch the AISG international grant calls page, where new themes are announced with roughly two-month submission windows.

Economics of AI Fellowship is sponsored by Stripe. The fellowship supports foundational academic research in the economics of AI, an area currently understudied despite rapid technical progress in artificial intelligence. Fellows receive a baseline grant, opportunities to attend conferences with leading economists and technologists, and potential access to unique data via Stripe and its customers.

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.

This is a Singapore-South Korea bilateral grant call jointly run by AI Singapore and Korea's Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, funding a single joint research team to develop high-accuracy, scalable, multimodal deepfake detection covering video, voice and text. AISG funds the Singapore side up to S$1,500,000 and IITP funds the Korean side up to 1,600,000,000 won, each over a maximum of three years, with the funded project running 1 September 2025 to 31 August 2028. The scope is notably deliverable-heavy rather than exploratory: the selected team is expected to develop novel detection technology across all three modalities, apply it to at least three industry use cases with partner commitments, build a large-scale multilingual dataset, benchmark against state-of-the-art models, and design and prototype a global common platform for deepfake detection. Eligibility on the Singapore side is tightly drawn to the six local Institutes of Higher Learning and A*STAR Research Institutes, with the team led by one principal investigator from Singapore and one from South Korea. The structural feature that defines this call is that only one team is selected, which makes it unusually high-variance compared with the multi-award AI safety and trust programmes it superficially resembles. It sits alongside a companion AISG-IITP call on AI for Urban Cooling with near-identical mechanics, and teams should target whichever matches their domain rather than both. Although this round has closed, the AISG-IITP pairing has now run repeatedly and the format is a reliable guide to future bilateral rounds.

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 Smart Data Research UK Fellowships provide up to £200,000 per project for researchers using smart data to address real-world challenges across the United Kingdom. Funded by UKRI through Smart Data Research UK, this program supports up to ten projects lasting 18 months, with start dates by February 2026. Applicants must be based at eligible UK organizations and demonstrate strong data skills with a compelling research question aligned to one of four SDR UK themes: productivity and prosperity, health and wellbeing, sustainability, or communities and places. Researchers at all career stages may apply, with early career researchers particularly encouraged. Projects may use smart datasets from SDR UK's six national data services or combine smart data with administrative and survey data sources.

The Ernest Rutherford Fellowship 2025 from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) supports early career researchers pursuing independent research within STFC's core science programme. Fellowships last up to five years and are funded at 80% of full economic cost, with the host organization covering the remainder. Applicants must hold a PhD or equivalent experience, demonstrate clear leadership potential, and be hosted by an eligible UK research organization with an STFC ERF quota. Candidates currently holding tenured academic positions at lecturer level are not eligible. Each host department has a strict application limit, so prospective fellows should contact their proposed department well ahead of the October 2025 deadline to confirm accommodation within the quota.

ACS 2026 Rising Stars in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry is a grant from the American Chemical Society (ACS Organic and Inorganic Au journal) that recognizes and publishes original, cutting-edge research from early-career chemists working at the forefront of organic and inorganic chemistry, including catalysis. Selected researchers are featured in a dedicated Special Issue of ACS Organic and Inorganic Au, gaining visibility across the chemical sciences community. Eligible applicants are independent early-career faculty researchers nominated by peers. The nomination deadline was October 20, 2025.

Health Equity Scholars for Action is sponsored by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This program supports the career development and academic progress of faculty conducting health equity research, with a focus on addressing challenges faced by historically marginalized faculty and improving social, political, and economic conditions that support health and health equity. While targeting faculty, the broader mission aligns with promoting health equity for communities of color.

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.

CIFAR delivers the Canadian AI Safety Institute Research Program on behalf of the Government of Canada, and its AI Safety Catalyst Grants stream funds research advancing fundamental and applied work in AI safety at up to 70,000 Canadian dollars per year for up to two years. The most recent Catalyst call focused specifically on sociotechnical considerations in AI safety and invited applications from researchers in the social sciences and humanities whose work addresses the social, ethical and governance dimensions of AI safety, a framing that deliberately opens AI safety funding to disciplines usually excluded from technical alignment calls. That portal opened 3 October 2025 and closed 14 November 2025. The programme runs alongside two other streams: Solution Networks in AI Safety, which fund multidisciplinary teams led by a core group of up to six individuals to develop applied solutions to sociotechnical risks from advanced AI systems and for which CIFAR announced over 1 million dollars in March 2026, and participation in the international AI Alignment Project led by the UK AI Security Institute, to which CIFAR committed 1 million dollars in February 2026. Catalyst calls have recurred annually, so researchers who missed the last round should monitor CIFAR for the next announcement.

EADH Small Grants 2025-2026 is sponsored by European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH). EADH Small Grants 2025-2026 is a grant from the European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH) that funds initiatives consistent with EADH's mission to promote digital humanities education and research through computational methods in the humanities and related disciplines.

The Horticulture Fund Grant is offered by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) to advance plant health and support Michigan's horticultural industry through applied research and outreach. Awards of up to $20,000 per project are available, with approximately $70,000 in total annual funding. Eligible applicants include research institutions, extension programs, and academic or outreach organizations in Michigan with projects focused on plant disease, pest management, crop quality, or other horticultural industry priorities. The application deadline is May 1, 2026. Proposals must demonstrate clear benefit to Michigan's horticultural producers and industry.

The Vitalik Buterin PhD Fellowship in AI Existential Safety funds doctoral students who intend to work on technical AI existential safety, a research area that frequently falls outside what departmental funding will support. It is administered by the Future of Life Institute in partnership with the Beneficial AI Foundation and covers tuition and fees for up to five years, a 40,000 dollar annual stipend at US, UK and Canadian universities, and a 10,000 dollar annual research fund for travel and compute. The 2026 round closed on 21 November 2025, and FLI has stated it will not run a Fellowships round in the autumn of 2026 while it pauses to reassess the program's direction - so the next open window is genuinely uncertain and prospective applicants should be on the FLI newsletter rather than waiting on a predictable annual cycle. Two categories are eligible: incoming PhD students who plan to focus on AI existential safety, and current PhD students who lack funding for that focus. The scope is deliberately narrow and the narrowness is the point. FLI funds research analysing the most probable routes by which AI technology could cause an existential catastrophe, and technical work on interpretability, AI system objectives, cybersecurity threats to AI systems, formalism development and benchmark creation that bears on those routes. Work on non-existential risks, or on general AI capability improvement, is explicitly out of scope unless the tie to existential risk reduction is direct. Applicants who frame a generic safety or fairness project for this call are misreading the brief.

The US-China AI Governance PhD Fellowship funds doctoral students working on risk reduction in the US-China relationship as it bears on artificial intelligence - a research area with acute policy relevance and almost no dedicated funding stream. The award covers tuition and fees for up to five years, a 40,000 dollar annual stipend at US, UK and Canadian universities, and a 10,000 dollar annual research fund. The most recent deadline was 21 November 2025, and FLI has announced it will not run a Fellowships round in autumn 2026 while it reassesses its fellowship programs, so the next window is uncertain. Six research directions are named: global governance approaches that mitigate AI race dynamics and the safety problems they create; the political factors that determine whether US-China cooperation is effective; the technology characteristics that make bilateral engagement more or less feasible; the actual current extent of collaboration and how cooperative institutions should be designed; how each nation understands and manages AI risk and where those approaches diverge; and the role third countries can play in reducing competition-driven risk. This is a governance and international-relations call rather than a technical one, and applicants from political science, law, security studies and economics are the intended audience. The framing worth noting is that FLI is funding scholarship on race dynamics specifically - proposals that treat US-China AI competition as a subject of description rather than as a risk to be reduced are unlikely to match the brief.

The Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) plan to jointly support foundational mathematical and statistical research on Digital Twins in applied sciences. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the demand and interest in applications that involve collaborative teams developing and analyzing Digital Twins to support decision making in various fields, including science, engineering, medicine, urban planning, and more. Both agencies recognize the need to promote research aiming to stimulate an interplay between mathematics/statistics/computation and practical applications in the realm of Digital Twins. This program encourages new collaborative efforts within the realm of Digital Twins, aiming at stimulating fundamental research innovation, pushing, and expanding the boundaries of knowledge, and exploring new frontiers in mathematics and computation for Digital Twin development, and its applications. By leveraging this synergy, the program aims to harness science, technology, and innovation to address some of our Society’s most pressing challenges. Funding Opportunity Number: 24-559. Assistance Listing: 12.800,47.041,47.049. Funding Instrument: G. Category: ST. Award Amount: Starting at $1.5M per award.

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.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs - USDA NIFA is sponsored by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The SBIR/STTR programs at USDA NIFA support research and development that leads to commercialization of innovative technologies. Specific topic areas relevant to forest farming and specialty crops include 'Plant Production and Protection - Biology' which supports enhancing crop production, and 'Management of Natural Resources' which aims to commercialize technologies to manage, monitor, improve, and/or protect natural resources while sustaining farm and forest productivity.

Developer Grants is sponsored by Circle. Circle's Developer Grant initiative supports projects leveraging USDC to create practical solutions. While the 2025 applications are closed for reimagining, they will place greater emphasis on Arc-specific grants and evaluate projects based on alignment with Circle products, team strength, innovation, and impact on the USDC network in 2026.

The Vitalik Buterin Postdoctoral Fellowship in AI Existential Safety supports postdoctoral researchers working on the technical problem of preventing AI-caused existential catastrophe. The award is 80,000 dollars in annual stipend at US, UK and Canadian universities plus a 10,000 dollar annual research fund, and the most recent round closed on 5 January 2026. FLI has since announced it will not accept Fellowship applications in the autumn of 2026 while it pauses to reassess the program, so the next cycle is not on a predictable schedule and interested researchers should contact grants@futureoflife.org or subscribe to the FLI newsletter rather than waiting for an annual call. Scope is narrow by design: FLI funds analysis of the most probable pathways by which AI technology could cause an existential catastrophe, together with technical work on interpretability, the specification of AI system objectives, formalism development, cybersecurity integrity of AI systems, and benchmark creation, each judged on whether it bears on existential risk. Research aimed at non-existential harms, or at improving general AI competence, is explicitly excluded unless the tie to existential risk reduction is direct and argued. The practical read is that this scheme exists to fund a specific, unfashionable research agenda that mainstream postdoctoral funding will not support, and that the stipend is set above standard academic postdoc rates precisely because the competing offer is a frontier lab. Candidates must also accept the donation covenant governing subsequent employment at certain AI companies, which materially constrains the two years after the fellowship ends.

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 AI for Science Datasets RFP is a competition run by Renaissance Philanthropy with the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology as strategic partner, seeking proposals for high-value scientific datasets that would unlock AI-driven progress in five priority fields: engineering biology, fusion energy, materials science, medical research and quantum technologies. It runs in two phases, with honoraria of 500 pounds for up to 25 Phase 1 proposals and 5,000 pounds for up to 10 advancing to Phase 2; the Phase 1 submission deadline was 17 January 2026. Submission is a four-page PDF via an Airtable form, and the bar to entry is deliberately low: early-stage ideas are welcome and a full team is not required at application. Eligibility is global, open to researchers, labs, companies, consortia and independent teams, with one binding condition - each proposal requires at least one collaboration with a UK-based organisation or individual. That UK-linkage requirement is the mechanism by which DSIT's strategic interest is expressed, and it is the thing to plan around rather than an afterthought. The honest framing of this opportunity is that it is a scoping exercise dressed as a funding call: the money recognises idea development and explicitly excludes dataset construction, infrastructure and operational costs. Its value lies in influence and positioning ahead of potential UK public investment in scientific data infrastructure, which makes it worth the low effort for teams already working in the five named fields. Teams seeking actual dataset construction funding should look instead to instruments such as the Lacuna Fund or Horizon Europe data topics.

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.

Autism Grant Program (AGP) is sponsored by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). A competitive grant program supporting autism research centers at Texas public, private, or independent institutions of higher education that conduct research and/or provide treatment to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It supports parent-directed treatment training, Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) training for teachers/paraprofessionals, and innovative autism treatment models.

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.

AHRQ's PA-24-266 funds phased innovation research testing promising digital healthcare interventions at the point of care to improve quality of healthcare delivery. The R21 phase supports initial developmental activities for up to 2 years, and the R33 phase provides expanded support for up to 3 years. Projects accelerate integration of technology into real-world healthcare settings, including AI-based decision support, smart clinical workflows, data-driven care models, and digital health tools. The program empowers researchers, providers, and innovators to improve patient outcomes through innovative digital solutions.

Research Grants on Education: Large is sponsored by Spencer Foundation. Supports intellectually ambitious and technically sound education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived. This program is field-initiated and accepts proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Geographic focus: International Focus areas: Education Research, Educational Theory, Educational Practice, Educational Policy

Small Grant Program is sponsored by John Templeton Foundation. Funding for discrete projects that align with the Foundation's core interest areas with a budget of $234,800 or less. These applications follow a quarterly review cycle with deadlines at the end of February, May, August, and November. Geographic focus: Global Focus areas: Character Virtue Development, Individual Freedom & Free Markets, Life Sciences, Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Public Engagement, Religion, Science, and Society

NFMLTA New Professors Research Support Grant is a grant from the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (NFMLTA) that funds research projects by faculty who are new to the professoriate in applied linguistics and language education. The grant is designed to support early-career professors conducting original research with potential to positively impact the field of foreign language teaching and learning. Eligible applicants are recently appointed faculty at colleges or universities in the United States. Award amounts and specific deadlines are published annually by NFMLTA through the Modern Language Journal.

This Digital Europe Programme topic funds the deployment and clinical validation of advanced multimodal AI solutions in medical imaging for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment, with a total call budget of approximately 14,400,000 euros. The call opened 4 November 2025 and closed 3 March 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. What distinguishes this from the large volume of research-stage AI-for-health funding in the EU is that it is explicitly a deployment instrument: the objective is to accelerate uptake of EU AI-driven imaging solutions, including machine learning and generative AI, into real clinical and research environments rather than to advance the underlying methods. The action is built around the Cancer Image Europe platform developed under the EUCAIM project, which supplies access to federated medical imaging data and to testing and validation environments, and proposals are expected to build on, extend and leverage that platform rather than construct parallel infrastructure. That dependency is the single most important scoping constraint and the one most likely to sink an otherwise strong proposal: a consortium proposing a standalone data pipeline is misreading the topic. This sits in the DIGITAL-2026-AI-09 call alongside a generative-AI-for-public-administration topic sharing the same 3 March 2026 deadline, and is distinct from DIGITAL-2026-AI-PILOTING-10-SCREENING on AI-based image screening in medical centres, which runs on a later 1 October 2026 deadline. Consortia comparing the two should note that this topic is oncology-specific and platform-anchored, while the screening topic is broader and pilot-oriented.

NWO Talent Programme Vici 2026 is sponsored by Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The Vici grant is for senior researchers who have already demonstrated the ability to develop their line of research and have academic qualities that clearly exceed the norm. It enables them to expand their research group and further develop their chosen line of research.

AIQAT is Qatar's first dedicated national AI research grant scheme, launched by the Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to fund research against priorities named in Qatar's National AI Strategy. It funds up to QAR 1,000,000 per project over two years across three declared priority areas: AI-assisted healthcare covering diagnostics and patient data analysis, AI-assisted education covering personalised learning, and AI-assisted tourism covering recommendation systems, logistics and visitor analytics. Submissions opened 14 January 2026 and closed 11 March 2026, with awards announced June-July 2026 and projects commencing in the second half of 2026. The defining feature, and the reason it matters as a signal rather than just a funding line, is that it is closed to everyone outside Qatar: the lead principal investigator must hold a terminal degree and be affiliated with an approved Qatari research institution, which in practice means Qatar University, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Texas A&M at Qatar, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, or a Qatar Foundation institute such as QCRI. International researchers can join only as collaborators on a Qatar-led team. Applicants should treat the three priority areas as binding rather than indicative: this is a strategy-implementation instrument, and proposals pursuing foundational AI methods with no healthcare, education or tourism application are poorly matched. For the next round the practical advice is to secure Qatari institutional affiliation and the sectoral data partner well before the January call opens.

Small Research Grant Program for the Next Generation of Researchers in AD/ADRD Research (R03) is sponsored by National Institute on Aging (NIA). This program supports small research projects, including pilot and feasibility studies, to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care for Alzheimer's and related dementias. It is specifically designed to support early-stage investigators and those new to the field.

The FFAR New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award supports early-career tenure-track faculty conducting innovative research in food and agriculture, including AI, precision agriculture, and computational approaches. The award provides up to $150,000 per year for up to 3 years ($450,000 total), making it one of the most substantial early-career grants available in agricultural sciences. FFAR's research priority areas include agroecosystems, food systems, production systems, and scientific workforce development — all of which increasingly involve AI and data-driven technologies. Research must directly benefit U.S. agricultural interests. The program follows a nomination-based application process: the nomination period opened February 11, 2026, with nominations due March 18, 2026, and full applications due April 29, 2026. FFAR was established through the 2014 Farm Bill and builds public-private partnerships to match congressional funding with private sources. The foundation supports research addressing major food and agriculture challenges including precision agriculture technologies, crop monitoring systems, and data-driven farm management tools. Note: This award is contingent on funding availability as FFAR has limited programmatic funds remaining.

AI & Democracy Grants is sponsored by Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, The University of Virginia. These grants support projects that reveal the social, political, and cultural dynamics emerging around the integration of AI systems into institutions and people's lives, as well as the role of governments, institutions, and organizations in the development and promotion of AI systems. The mission is to understand how rapidly evolving digital technologies and AI can challenge but also fortify democratic institutions and practices.

Mobile Health (mHealth): Technology and Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries is a grant from the Fogarty International Center at NIH that funds research on mobile health technologies and their outcomes in low and middle income countries. Administered as an R21/R33 Phased Innovation Award, this funding opportunity supports studies that leverage mHealth tools to address health challenges in resource-limited settings. Participating NIH components include FIC, NEI, NIBIB, NICHD, NIDCD, NIMH, and NCI. Applications must align with the mission of the participating institutes. The program accommodates clinical trial optional designs. Award amounts vary by application and institute. The deadline for the most recent cycle was March 20, 2026.

NEA Research Grants in the Arts & NEA Research Labs is sponsored by National Endowment for the Arts. NEA Research Grants in the Arts & NEA Research Labs is a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that establishes interdisciplinary research teams at universities and medical centers nationwide to study the intersection of arts and public benefit.

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program – Basic and Preclinical Science is a grant from the Charles A. King Trust that supports mid- to late-stage postdoctoral fellows and mentored clinician scientists conducting basic and preclinical biomedical research in Massachusetts. The program funds researchers at a critical career juncture, providing resources for independent scientific investigation. The 2026 Full Stage Application deadline was March 25, 2026, with invitations sent February 12, 2026. Eligible applicants must be senior postdoctoral researchers or mentored clinician scientists based at research institutions in Massachusetts.

The USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Strengthening Agricultural Systems (SAS) program awards large-scale integrated research, education, and extension projects addressing complex agricultural challenges. USDA anticipates awarding 10-12 grants ranging from $2.5 million to $10 million per award. The program supports projects incorporating AI, machine learning, and data science to strengthen food production, agricultural sustainability, and rural community resilience. Projects may address precision agriculture, autonomous systems, climate-smart farming, supply chain optimization, and workforce development in agricultural technology.

Accelerate CA Deep Tech Funding Program is sponsored by Accelerate CA (administered by CalOSBA). This program provides non-dilutive funding to science-driven startups in the Greater Sacramento region (California) that are developing solutions to major challenges in agriculture, health, and sustainability. It focuses on early-stage startups at the pre-seed through pre-Series A stage building technology-driven products rooted in research, engineering, or scientific innovation within agrifood tech, health & life sciences, or clean tech sectors.

Accelerate CA Grant for Deep Tech Startups is sponsored by California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA). The Accelerate CA program offers non-dilutive funding to early-stage deep tech startups in the Greater Sacramento region, focusing on agrifood tech, health & life sciences, and clean tech. The funding aims to support product development, testing, prototyping, and building early customer traction. It also provides mentorship, technical assistance, and connections to regional networks.

Trauma System Development Grant is a funding program from the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) that supports trauma care infrastructure and research across Indiana. The grant provides funding of up to $10,000 to improve trauma system coordination, advance trauma research, and strengthen emergency medical services. Eligible applicants include Indiana hospitals, EMS providers, and researchers at Indiana CTSI-affiliated universities. Projects should address gaps in trauma care delivery, patient outcomes, or system-level improvements. Applications are reviewed on a competitive basis; the previous deadline was March 31, 2026. Applicants must demonstrate affiliation with Indiana's trauma system or an affiliated research institution.

EAIE Doctoral Research Grants is a grant from the European Association for International Education that funds doctoral students conducting research on the internationalisation of higher education. Awards of up to €4,500 support research expenses, conference attendance, and data collection, enabling recipients to share findings with the international education community. The deadline is March 31, 2026. Eligible applicants are currently enrolled doctoral students or candidates in good standing whose research focuses on internationalisation and who expect to continue their studies during the 2026–2027 academic year. Recipients gain visibility within the EAIE network and opportunities to present their work.

EPSRC has committed up to 40,000,000 pounds to establish a single Fundamental AI Research Lab, a UK consortium mandated to pursue theoretical foundations and methodological advances in AI that commercial laboratories are not pursuing. The scope statement is explicit that the lab should address structural limitations of current systems rather than scale existing approaches, and that it should target areas not pursued by commercial labs, which positions the instrument as a deliberate counterweight to industry research agendas. Funding arrives in two linked components: an initial 18-month research grant of up to 7,500,000 pounds full economic cost at 80 percent EPSRC funding, and a six-year training grant of up to 1,900,000 pounds full economic cost funded at 100 percent, reflecting a dual mandate to produce research and to build the UK talent pipeline. A stage gate review determines whether the award extends to a full six-year programme worth up to 32,000,000 pounds. Consortia must include an organisation with degree awarding powers, and lead organisations must demonstrate world-leading fundamental AI expertise. Research organisations were required to complete an intent to submit survey by 16 March 2026, with full applications due 31 March 2026 at 4:00pm UK time and projects expected to start 1 May 2026.

The Swiss AI Initiative has opened its third call for Large Grants, allocating substantial GPU compute on Switzerland's national supercomputing infrastructure to one-year projects across the Initiative's priority areas. Named topics include large language models, multimodality, AI safety, AI in education, AI for science, health, climate and weather, robotics, and AI in democratic processes, with other areas considered where alignment with the Initiative's criteria can be shown. Individual allocations can exceed 500,000 compute hours, placing successful projects in the range where genuine foundation-model pretraining and large-scale multimodal experimentation become feasible rather than merely fine-tuning. A secondary cash component of up to 200,000 Swiss francs for personnel and research costs is available in exceptional cases, but compute is the primary currency of the award. The process is two-stage: a Declaration of Intent was due 16 March 2026 at 17:00 CET, followed by full proposals on 31 March 2026 at 17:00 CEST. Eligibility is tightly drawn to the ETH Domain, requiring affiliation with ETH Zurich, EPFL, PSI, WSL, Empa or Eawag and a permanent or tenure-track professorial appointment lasting the full project duration, with cross-institutional collaborations encouraged.

The Worldwide Cancer Research 2026 Grant Round is a grant from Worldwide Cancer Research that funds discovery-focused cancer research projects across all cancer types and any aspect of cancer biology worldwide. The program prioritizes early-stage, high-risk, high-reward research that challenges existing thinking and opens new avenues for cancer prevention and treatment. Eligible applicants are researchers at institutions worldwide who meet the organization's funding criteria and research policies. Awards have a maximum budget of £275,000, with typical three-year grants around £200,000. Applications are accepted once per year. The 2026 grant round deadline was April 2, 2026. Consult the Worldwide Cancer Research website for future grant round information.

Mental Health and T1D Community Grants is sponsored by Breakthrough T1D Canada. Mental Health and T1D Community Grants is a seed-funding initiative from Breakthrough T1D Canada that supports organizations developing innovative projects to improve the mental health and wellness of people living with Type 1 diabetes and their informal caregivers.

The 2026 NASA EPSCoR Basic Research Grants is a grant from the Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium that funds researchers at Wyoming colleges and universities to establish research programs aligned with NASA Mission Directorate strategic priorities. Awards of up to $750,000 per proposal over three years are available, with only one proposal accepted per jurisdiction. Applicants must include 50% non-federal cost-sharing and demonstrate collaboration with NASA Mission Directorates. The FY 2026 pre-proposal deadline is April 12, 2026. Projects must contribute to Wyoming's overall research infrastructure, science and technology workforce development, and help build long-term research capacity in the state.

The Cambridge ERA:AI (Existential Risk and AI) Research Fellowship 2026 is a 10-week immersive research program based at the University of Cambridge designed to support early-career researchers and PhD students exploring frontier AI safety and governance. The program offers a fully funded fellowship with salary, mentorship from leading AI safety researchers at Cambridge, and access to one of the world's premier research environments. Fellows work on original research in AI safety, AI governance, AI alignment, and related areas of existential risk from advanced AI systems. The program commences July 6, 2026 and provides global mentorship connecting fellows with the broader AI safety research community. This is a highly competitive opportunity for researchers who want to make the transition into AI safety and governance research or deepen their existing work in these critical fields.

The Horizon Europe Cluster 4 call HORIZON-CL4-2026-05-DIGITAL-EMERGING-02 funds research and innovation on next-generation AI agents capable of operating autonomously in complex real-world environments. With a budget of approximately €20 million, this Research and Innovation Action (RIA) call supports projects developing agentic AI systems that can reason, plan, and act in dynamic settings across sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, autonomous systems, and public services. The call is part of the broader 2026-2027 Horizon Europe Work Programme, which dedicates an estimated €2,023 million to AI-related topics across Cluster 4. Projects are expected to advance the state of the art in multi-agent coordination, robust decision-making under uncertainty, and safe deployment of autonomous AI systems. This call complements the GenAI4EU initiative and RAISE programme, collectively representing Europe's largest-ever investment in AI research.

HORIZON-CL4-2026-05 is the second of two Horizon Europe digital calls published on 15 January 2026 under Cluster 4 Digital, Industry and Space, carrying 85.5 million euros of the combined 307.3 million euro package. Its stated focus is open strategic autonomy in digital and emerging technologies and raw materials, and the AI-relevant content is concentrated in next-generation AI agents and robotics for industrial and service applications, alongside topics on advanced materials with enhanced sensing functionalities. The deadline for all topics is 15 April 2026 through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal, the same date as the companion call HORIZON-CL4-2026-04. This is the call to target if the work is embodied or agentic rather than foundational, and it is distinct from the larger trustworthy-AI and data-services call published alongside it. The pairing of agentic AI with industrial and service robotics in a single autonomy-framed call is the substantive signal: the Commission is funding AI that acts in the physical world and in European industrial value chains, and the raw materials and sensing topics in the same call reinforce that supply-chain framing. Standard Horizon Europe consortium rules apply - at least three independent legal entities from three different Member States or associated countries - so the practical unit is a multi-country consortium including at least one industrial end user. Entities from non-associated third countries including the United States may join as unfunded partners. As with any Horizon call, the expected EU contribution, action type and number of projects to be funded are defined per topic and not at call level, so the individual topic page is the only reliable source for what a proposal should be sized at.

CARB-X Funding Opportunities is a grant from CARB-X that funds preclinical research and development of antibacterial products targeting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). CARB-X supports small biotech companies, academic researchers, and nonprofit organizations worldwide working on therapeutics, preventatives, and diagnostics aligned with published Target Product Profiles. Expressions of Interest for the 2026 funding round were accepted from April 8 to April 22, 2026. Eligibility and award amounts vary by funding theme; applicants must meet minimal entry criteria outlined in the Target Product Profiles. Applications are evaluated on scientific merit, and selected applicants proceed to full proposal submission through the CARB-X Portal.

Methods to Improve the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in Patient-Centered Comparative Effectiveness Research (Cycle 2 2026) is sponsored by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). This PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) aims to fund studies that address high-priority methodological gaps in patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). One of the key program priorities for Cycle 2 2026 is Methods To Improve the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in Patient-Centered CER.

2026 Grant — Thoroughbred Charities of America is a grant from Thoroughbred Charities of America that funds nonprofit organizations supporting Thoroughbred horses and the people who care for them. Over 36 years, TCA has distributed more than million to over 200 Thoroughbred industry organizations. Priority programs include Thoroughbred rehabilitation, retraining, rehoming, and retirement; equine-assisted therapy; Thoroughbred incentive and track-based placement programs; backstretch and farm employee assistance; and equine research. Direct care programs must have a minimum of three registered Thoroughbreds on-site. Eligible applicants are established 501(c)(3) organizations—not first-year or start-up nonprofits—whose missions align with supporting Thoroughbreds. The application deadline is May 1, 2026. Award amounts vary by organization and project.

Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program is sponsored by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Funds collaborative research and training experiences, potentially including design education in interdisciplinary contexts. This program should be reviewed carefully against your organization's mission, staffing capacity, timeline, and compliance readiness before you commit resources to a full application. Strong submissions usually translate sponsor priorities into concrete objectives, clear implementation milestones, and measurable public benefit. For planning purposes, treat May 1, 2026 as your working submission target unless the sponsor publishes an updated notice. A competitive project plan should include a documented need statement, implementation approach, evaluation framework, risk controls, and a realistic budget narrative. Even when a grant allows broad program design, reviewers still expect credible evidence that the proposed work can be executed within the grant period and with appropriate accountability. Current published award information indicates $1.65M over six years Organizations should verify the final funding range, matching requirements, and allowability rules directly in the official opportunity materials before preparing a budget. Finance and program teams should align early so direct costs, indirect costs, staffing assumptions, procurement timelines, and reporting obligations all remain consistent throughout drafting and post-award administration. Eligibility guidance for this opportunity is: Canadian postsecondary researchers and their organizations If your organization has partnerships, subrecipients, or collaborators, define responsibilities and compliance ownership before submission. Reviewers often look for implementation credibility, so letters of commitment, prior performance evidence, and a clear governance model can materially strengthen the application narrative and reduce concerns about delivery risk. A practical approach is to begin with a focused readiness review, then build a workback schedule from the sponsor deadline. Confirm required attachments, registration dependencies, and internal approval checkpoints early. This reduces last-minute issues and improves submission quality. For the most accurate requirements, always rely on the official notice and primary source links associated with Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program.

The Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science is a 30 million US dollar global open call providing funding, tools and technical expertise to researchers and organisations using AI to accelerate scientific breakthroughs. Grants run from 500,000 dollars to over 3 million dollars, and selected organisations also join a six-month Google.org Accelerator offering pro bono technical support from Google experts plus Google Cloud credits. Applications closed on 1 May 2026. Two focus areas are in scope: AI for health and life sciences, and AI for climate resilience and environmental science. Eligible applicants are nonprofits, social enterprises and academic and research institutions, which makes this unusually open to university-led work compared with most corporate philanthropy in the AI space. This challenge is distinct from Google.org's Impact Challenge: AI for Government Innovation, which ran on a separate track with an earlier April 2026 deadline and a different brief, and the two should not be conflated when tracking Google.org's AI grantmaking. The substantive signal in the design is that Google.org is buying scientific outcomes rather than AI capability: the two named domains are application areas, not methods, and the Accelerator structure indicates the funder expects grantees to need engineering support to get AI methods into working scientific practice. Groups with strong science and weak ML engineering are the intended recipients. Anyone tracking this fund should watch for a successor round, since Google.org has run Impact Challenges on a repeating basis.

Constellation Astra Fellowship: Strategy and Governance Stream (Fall 2026) is sponsored by Constellation Astra (with mentor organizations including Forethought, AI Policy Network, and Coefficient Giving). A fully funded in-person fellowship to develop and pursue research projects focused on reducing catastrophic risks from AI, specifically on the strategy and governance side.

Research Grant Funding Cycle is sponsored by National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). NEFE provides funding for rigorous, innovative, and actionable research that seeks to improve the public's financial well-being and has the potential to make a profound contribution to the field of financial education. All grants are centered around NEFE's research funding priorities and personal finance ecosystem.

Navigating a Transforming World Order: Fellowships on Security and Technology is sponsored by Volkswagen-Stiftung. Supports postdoctoral researchers in generating new knowledge on the transformation of the global security order, focusing on the nexus of security and technology with a European perspective. Geographic focus: Europe Focus areas: Security Policy, Technology, Political Science, International Relations

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Encouraging Women's Health Research within the NIDCD Mission Areas is sponsored by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) / National Institutes of Health (NIH). This notice solicits grant applications seeking to improve women's health across the lifespan within the scope of NIDCD's mission.

AI for Information Security Call for Proposals – Spring 2026 is sponsored by Amazon. Amazon is offering research funding to advance artificial intelligence applications in information security. The program supports research in areas like trustworthy and reliable agentic AI systems, threat detection and response, AI model security, and cloud security.

Amazon AI for Information Security Call for Proposals (Spring 2026) is a grant from Amazon that funds AI research tackling the most challenging problems in information security. Topics include trustworthy agentic AI for security operations, AI agent access governance, threat and anomaly detection, AI-powered incident response and red-teaming, vulnerability detection, and securing generative AI systems. Selected principal investigators may receive up to $80,000 in unrestricted funds on average plus up to $40,000 in AWS Promotional Credits. The submission period runs through May 6, 2026. Eligible applicants include academic and non-profit researchers focusing on AI applications in information security.

Amazon Research Awards - AI/ML Focus is sponsored by Amazon. This program provides unrestricted funding to academic researchers and non-profit organizations working on industry-scale technical challenges in artificial intelligence and machine learning. It supports groundbreaking research across various disciplines, including computer vision, fairness in AI, natural language processing, robotics, and security.

Interventions on Health and Healthcare Disparities on Non-Communicable and Chronic Diseases in Latin America: Improving Health Outcomes Across the Hemisphere (R01 - Clinical Trial Required) is sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Office of Research on Women's Health; 3 more sponsors. This grant supports collaborative research to address Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) health disparities among Latin American and U. S. Hispanic/Latino populations, emphasizing innovative interventions and international partnerships.

The Wellcome Mental Health Data Prize UK 2026-2028 supports the development of data tools and AI solutions contributing to improving early intervention for anxiety, depression, and psychosis. This prize program, managed in partnership with Social Finance, funds teams to develop innovative data science and AI tools that can identify individuals at risk of mental health conditions earlier and connect them with appropriate interventions. The prize builds on Wellcome's broader mental health science priorities and complements their separate generative AI mental health research program. Previous rounds funded teams at approximately £200,000 each. The UK 2026 round accepts applications until May 8, 2026 at 12pm. The prize program has previously operated in Africa (2024-2026 with £200,000 per team) and globally (2022-2023 with £1.4 million total). Contact: dataprize@wellcome.org.

The Wellcome Mental Health Data Prize UK 2026-2028 is an innovation programme supporting teams developing new digital tools and applications that use existing mental health data in innovative ways. It brings together people from academia and industry with funding of up to £400,000, tailored support, and a vibrant learning community over an 18-month period. The prize aims to transform great ideas into scalable solutions that improve early intervention for anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Teams work to create tools for mental health science that can have real-world impact on understanding and treating mental health conditions.

ACCEL-KS Kansas SBIR/STTR Matching Program is a state grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce providing up to $250,000 to Kansas-based businesses and early-stage companies that have received federal SBIR or STTR awards. The program accelerates the commercialization of innovative research and technology by supplementing federal Phase I and Phase II awards with state matching funds. Eligible applicants include businesses, researchers, and early-stage companies operating in Kansas that hold qualifying federal SBIR or STTR awards. The program helps Kansas innovators advance technology from research to market.

The Amazon Research Awards (ARA) Robotics Call for Proposals funds academic research advancing robotics technology for capable, safe, and intelligent robots operating alongside people. Research topics include AI for Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction, Autonomous Navigation, Manipulation in Cluttered and Unstructured Environments, Soft and Compliant Robotics, Perception and Computer Vision for Robotics, and Multi-Robot Systems. Awards consist of up to $50,000 in unrestricted research funds plus up to $50,000 in AWS Promotional Credits. This is a recurring program with calls typically issued in spring and fall cycles. Selected researchers gain access to Amazon robotics experts and potential collaboration opportunities.

Affordable Ka-Band Metamaterial-Based Electronically Scanned Array Radar for Test and Training (A254-049) is sponsored by U.S. Army (Army FUZE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)). This topic seeks low-cost Ka-Band radar solutions through advancements in metamaterials to mimic the performance of an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) without the high cost. Software-related technologies and any other applicable advanced technologies should be analyzed and utilized.

Amazon Research Awards AI for Information Security Call for Proposals Spring 2026 is a grant from Amazon that funds academic and non-profit research on artificial intelligence applied to cybersecurity challenges. Priority research areas include trustworthy agentic AI for security operations, AI agent access governance, threat and anomaly detection in agentic systems, AI-powered incident response and red-teaming, vulnerability detection using agentic AI, and securing generative AI models and training data. Eligible applicants are full-time faculty at accredited academic institutions or permanent researchers at non-profit organizations with recognized legal status. Selected principal investigators may receive unrestricted funds averaging up to $80,000 USD and up to $40,000 in AWS Promotional Credits per award. The submission period closed May 13, 2026, with decision letters expected in August 2026.

NOAA's Competitive Research Program: Harmful Algal Bloom Innovation Challenge — Toxin Detection in Seafood is a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that funds research and development of innovative methods for detecting harmful algal bloom (HAB) toxins in seafood. The program addresses a critical public health and food safety challenge, supporting approaches that improve the speed, accuracy, or accessibility of toxin detection in commercially and recreationally harvested seafood products. Eligible applicants include U.S. institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, state and local governments, tribal entities, U.S. territories, and for-profit organizations. The application deadline is May 14, 2026. Award amounts are not publicly specified in the source materials.

NOAA's Competitive Research Program: Prevention, Control, and Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms Program is a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that funds development and testing of technologies and strategies to prevent, control, or mitigate harmful algal blooms (HABs). The program prioritizes proposals testing promising or proven HAB control technologies, including feasibility studies and large-scale field testing. Awards may reach up to $500,000 per year for up to 3 years (focal area 1) or $1,000,000 per year for up to 5 years (focal area 2), with approximately $2.5 million anticipated in year one. The deadline is May 14, 2026. Eligible applicants include U.S. institutions of higher education, nonprofits, state and local governments, and tribal entities.

The Amazon Research Awards AWS Agentic AI Spring 2026 call funds academic research advancing the science and practice of agentic AI systems. The program seeks proposals across four priority themes: no-code and low-code agentic AI solutions for rapid deployment and management, AI-enhanced productivity applications enabling human-AI collaboration, multi-agent systems for secure and effective agent collaboration, and agentic AI for scientific discovery spanning health sciences, chemistry, materials science, and physics. Additional welcome topics include safety and responsible AI for agents, agent customization and post-training optimization, data integration and retrieval systems, enterprise-scale operations and governance, and applications in software engineering, healthcare, finance, media, and consumer assistants. The program supports development of open-source tools and encourages research benefiting the broader AI community. Awards are unrestricted gifts with no intellectual property obligations.

The Amazon Research Awards Robotics Call for Proposals for Spring 2026 funds academic research advancing robotics technology for capable, safe and intelligent robots operating alongside people in complex real-world environments. Each award provides up to 50,000 US dollars on average in unrestricted funds plus up to 50,000 dollars on average in AWS promotional credits, together with AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists. The submission window ran 25 March to 13 May 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific, with decision letters issued in August 2026. Four research areas are prioritised. AI for Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction covers multi-modal perception of complex 3D scenes, multi-modal task grounding from human instructions spanning language, vision, gestures and references to priors, the effect of robot personality on user trust, and legibility of autonomous decision-making. Autonomous Navigation covers geometry-aware navigation, multi-modal perception integration, reinforcement learning for object interaction and scalable data generation. Manipulation covers cluttered and unstructured environments, physical reasoning, world models and data synthesis. Safety-Critical Control covers safe manipulation, compliant body control, verification of reinforcement learning policies and robust human detection. Proposals follow a template and are limited to three pages excluding appendices, which makes this one of the lowest-effort competitive applications available to a robotics PI. Awardees span more than 49 universities in 11 countries. This robotics call is a separate competition from the Amazon Research Awards Agentic AI call that runs on the same seasonal cycle, and a PI may target whichever is the better fit.

EIT Digital Open Innovation Factory 2026 is a grant from EIT Digital that funds collaborative innovation projects advancing Europe's digital transformation through open partnerships between industry, academia, and research organizations. The program supports development and deployment of digital technologies — including AI, data, and cybersecurity solutions — aimed at solving key market and societal challenges. Awards are available up to €400,000 per project. Eligible applicants are consortia of at least two partners (SMEs, large enterprises, or research organizations) from at least two different countries in the EU or countries associated with Horizon Europe. The application deadline is May 15, 2026.

Schmidt Sciences invites proposals for its 2026 Science of Trustworthy AI program, supporting technical research that improves our ability to understand, predict, and control risks from frontier AI systems. The program funds work across three research aims: characterizing misalignment in frontier AI systems, developing generalizable measurements and interventions for AI safety, and overseeing AI systems with superhuman capabilities including multi-agent risks. Research areas include interpretability, robustness, alignment, and risk prediction. Tier 1 awards up to $1M support focused investigations, while Tier 2 awards of $1M-$5M+ fund larger multi-year collaborative efforts across multiple institutions. Schmidt Sciences also provides compute resources, software engineering support, and API credits with frontier model providers. Preference is given to multi-PI collaborations. This is a rigorous scientific research program focused on technical AI safety, not policy analysis.

Schmidt Sciences invites proposals for the 2026 Science of Trustworthy AI RFP, funding technical research that advances the science of building trustworthy AI systems. The program addresses three interconnected research aims: understanding why frontier AI systems develop misaligned goals that fail under distribution shift or pressure (Aim 1), creating valid evaluations and interventions to control what AI systems learn (Aim 2), and developing oversight mechanisms for superhuman AI capabilities and managing multi-agent risks (Aim 3). Beyond direct funding, awardees receive computing resources including GPUs and CPUs, software engineering support, API credits with frontier model providers, and access to a research community. The program is open globally and encourages cross-institutional and cross-geographic collaborations. Indirect costs are capped at 10% of total direct costs.

AERA-NSF Grants Program (Research Grants) is sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF) (administered by American Educational Research Association - AERA). This program, funded by NSF, offers small grants to support field-initiated research using large-scale designed and administrative data sets from federal agencies. The goal is to enhance the capability of the education research community and promote rigorous education research.

AERA-NSF Dissertation Grants is sponsored by American Educational Research Association (AERA). The AERA-NSF Grants Program offers small grants to advanced doctoral students to support the student while analyzing data and writing the doctoral dissertation. This program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and aims to enhance the capability of the education research community to conduct policy- and practice-relevant research using large-scale federal data sets. Researchers from various disciplines such as education, sociology, economics, statistics, demography, and psychology are encouraged to apply.

2026-2027 BAA Appendix 26B-I STTR Solicitation is sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This STTR solicitation from NASA is for Phase I projects, encouraging cooperative R&D between small businesses and research institutions to develop innovative technologies that align with NASA's mission. Software development is a key area within STTR programs.

FY2026 Research Opportunities in Accelerator Stewardship and Accelerator Development is a grant from Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science that please note that this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is for cross-cutting R&D and domestic supplier development and that program-specific AS&T R&D is supported though NOFOs issued by each SC program. Track 1: Accelerator Stewardship Topical Areas Applications for activities in Track 1: Accelerator Stewardship Topical Areas will be accepted from all responsible domestic organizations capable of meeting the objectives of this NOFO. Colleges and universities, non-profit and for-profit research organizations, DOE's national laboratories, small businesses, and other federal research organizations. The application deadline is 2026-05-21 00:00:00+00.

SBIR/STTR Phase I Topics is a grant from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that funds small businesses and research institutions to establish the scientific, technical, and commercial feasibility of innovative technologies aligned with NASA's mission priorities. Phase I serves as the idea generation phase, enabling applicants to demonstrate the merit and feasibility of their proposed innovation before advancing to subsequent development phases. NASA publishes annual solicitations — including the 2026 Appendix A SBIR and 2026 Appendix B SBIR and STTR solicitations — identifying specific technology topic areas across aeronautics, space exploration, biological sciences, flight research, manufacturing, and technology transfer. Small businesses partner with research institutions in STTR projects.

Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translation Spectrum (SCIRTS) is sponsored by Craig H. Neilsen Foundation. The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation is looking to support research that addresses functional outcomes and complications after spinal cord injury (SCI), across the acute and chronic injury periods. Studies should demonstrate novelty, scientific merit, and the potential for substantial impact on treatment and care. Meaningful inclusion of individuals with lived SCI experience is encouraged.

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.

LAUNCH Program is sponsored by National Institutes of Health (NIH). The LAUNCH program supports the training of future global health researchers by providing early career researchers in the U.S. an opportunity for immersion in the wide-ranging health conditions and challenges experienced in international low-resource settings and to partner with local health researchers.

Schmidt Sciences 2026 AI Interpretability RFP is a pilot program seeking new methods for detecting and mitigating deceptive behaviors from AI models. The program focuses on understanding deceptive behaviors from large language models including sycophancy and knowingly giving harmful advice problems that are appearing more frequently in frontier AI systems trained with noisy human feedback. Research areas include developing monitoring and detection methods for model deception creating targeted steering methods for intervening on model truthfulness building visualizations or dashboards that communicate model truthfulness to users applying detection and steering methods to AI debate settings or decision support systems and studying the role of deception mitigations in multi-agent interactions. This program is distinct from the Schmidt Sciences Science of Trustworthy AI RFP which focuses more broadly on understanding and controlling frontier AI risks. The Interpretability RFP specifically targets research on detecting deceptive LLM behaviors and developing practical interventions.

Schmidt Sciences has launched a pilot interpretability programme funding new methods for detecting and mitigating deceptive behaviors in large language models, with awards of 300,000 to 1,000,000 US dollars over one to three years. The programme defines deception broadly and concretely: contradictions between what a model states and what it internally represents, misleading confidence claims, selective omission of information, sycophancy, manipulative discourse, and knowingly giving harmful advice. Three research directions are named. The first is identifying deceptive behaviors in language models, including monitoring and detection methods. The second is creating targeted interventions and steering methods that improve model truthfulness. The third is implementing detection and steering techniques in practical settings, which the RFP illustrates with AI debate settings and decision support systems, along with building visualisations or dashboards that communicate model truthfulness to users and studying the role of deception mitigations in multi-agent interactions. The call is open globally to individual researchers, teams, institutions and multi-institution collaborations, with a deadline of 26 May 2026 and informational sessions held on 2 April and 28 April 2026. It is distinct from Schmidt Sciences' broader Science of Trustworthy AI RFP and runs its own application portal.

Resource-Related Research Projects for Development of Models and Related Materials for Studying Human Health and Diseases (R24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) is sponsored by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (United States); National Institutes of Health. This grant supports the development of broad-impact human health and disease models and resources for biomedical research, applicable across multiple NIH institutes.

Innovate UK competition funding the creation, curation, annotation, and exploitation of FAIR-data and benchmarks to fuel AI industry growth. Projects must create high-quality benchmarks based on representative dataset slices to enable evaluation of new frontier AI models, while also developing larger AI-ready annotated and curated datasets. Supports collaborative projects that advance the UK AI benchmarking ecosystem and enable responsible AI development through standardized evaluation frameworks.

Open Horizons Open Call #3 is sponsored by Cascade Funding Hub (EU Mission 'Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030'). This call mobilizes and engages communities across the Atlantic and Arctic regions to restore and protect marine and freshwater ecosystems through community-led initiatives, contributing to the EU Mission 'Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030'.

George P. Shultz Dissertation Support Fund is a grant from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) that funds empirical dissertation research by graduate students working on problems of economic policy. The fund specifically supports projects with a compelling need for primary data collection or empirical fieldwork. Eligible applicants are graduate students at Stanford whose dissertations are oriented toward economic policy problems and involve empirical research. Award amounts vary. Applications are accepted beginning in March and reviewed during the spring quarter alongside other named SIEPR graduate fellowships.

Gilbert W. Crain Memorial Research Grant is sponsored by Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The Gilbert W. Crain Memorial Research Grant program supports academic research relevant to governmental accounting standard setting. The GASB relies on academic research to inform its standard-setting activities for state and local governments. This grant encourages collaborative research efforts with academics.

AIGC for Future Global Challenge 2026 is sponsored by AIGC for Future Global Challenge (inviting submissions worldwide). This challenge invites young creators, interdisciplinary teams, companies, and research institutions worldwide to submit AI-generated projects that promote innovation, sustainability, inclusion, and global collaboration. It encourages the use of artificial intelligence and AI-generated content (AIGC) to create positive social impact and support sustainable development goals, including education and awareness and community development.

Aging and Decision Neuroscience Research Pilot Grants (Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging - SRNDNA) is sponsored by The University of Texas at Dallas (SRNDNA). These grants support research focused on the neural mechanisms of decision-making in adult development and aging or on life course decisions that improve health and well-being in old age. Priority is given to projects related to Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD). Funds are primarily for data collection and task development, or to add an older adult sample to an existing study.

Grants for Sustainable Textile Innovation is sponsored by New York Fashion Innovation Center (NYFIC). This grant program supports New York-based businesses and organizations working to advance and scale sustainable textile development for fashion and interiors. It focuses on strengthening New York-produced materials and industry through environmentally sustainable innovations using fibers and materials grown, processed, or made in New York State.

Antarctic Research Not Requiring U.S. Antarctic Program Field Support is sponsored by National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (OPP), Antarctic Sciences Section (ANT). This solicitation funds cutting-edge research that improves understanding of interactions among the Antarctic region and global systems, expands fundamental knowledge of Antarctic systems, biota, and processes, and utilizes the unique characteristics of the Antarctic region as a…

NYFIC $10,000 Grants for Sustainable Textile Innovation is a grant from the New York Fashion Innovation Center (NYFIC) that funds New York State–based businesses, organizations, and individuals working to advance and scale sustainable textile development for fashion and interiors. The program supports farmers, researchers, manufacturers, designers, brands, retailers, and educators whose projects contribute to a more sustainable textile industry in New York State. All funded projects must be conducted primarily within New York State. Awards are up to $10,000 per recipient. This biannual grant program runs through 2027, with Round Four opening April 13, 2026, and the application deadline on June 1, 2026. Recipients are announced in the spring following each submission cycle.

Antarctic Research Requiring U.S. Antarctic Program Support for Fieldwork is a grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs that funds scientific research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean requiring logistical support from the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP). Funded research improves understanding of Antarctic systems, global climate linkages, biological and geochemical processes, and polar-region dynamics. Approximately $60 million is distributed annually across Antarctic Sciences programs, supporting up to 50 awards. Eligible applicants are scientists at U.S. institutions, federal agencies, and other research organizations whose work specifically requires USAP logistical support. The proposal deadline is June 1, 2026.

Delta Health Care Service Grant Program is sponsored by USDA – Rural Business-Cooperative Service. Eligible applicants are a consortium/group of three or more entities that are Regional Institutions of Higher Education, Academic Health and Research Institutes, and/or Economic Development Entities, located in the Delta Region, with at least one year of prior experience in addr…