August Funding Roundup: 138 New Opportunities!
494 funding opportunities spanning the globe and sectors, for non profits, social enterprises and purpose driven organizations.
Hello Everyone!
This edition brings to you 138 new opportunities grouped into the seven sections. Before you start clicking, three shifts are worth naming, because they cut across sectors rather than sitting inside any one of them.
Money is arriving shaped like investment, not charity. Across climate, enterprise, and research, funders are moving from one-off grants to blended, performance-linked, revolving, and cascade instruments. Kenya Climate Ventures runs performance-based grants alongside a revolving, concessional fund; Convergence layers milestone-based grants with blended-finance structuring; the EU pushes money out to textile and manufacturing SMEs and to social-finance intermediaries as cascade funding rather than to end grantees; and the Fund for Innovation in Development runs a tiered ladder from prototype to scale. The tell is consistent: disbursement tied to verified outcomes, and capital built to recycle as it returns. We saw bankable projects back in February and venture-style capital for impact founders in May. In August it has become the default grammar of climate and enterprise money, on nearly every page.
Sport and physical activity are being funded as health interventions. Some of the most deliberate money this month treats movement as medicine. The adidas Foundation’s Recovery Through Sport backs sport as mental-health and psychosocial support for children affected by displacement and crisis; Novo Nordisk’s Cities for Better Health runs its Active Play Challenge to design physical activity back into children’s daily lives as disease prevention; and public funders are following, with the Mayor of London’s investment in youth clubs and Hastings’ leisure-facility grants treating activity as a lever for youth and community health. This shift is newer and smaller than the other two, but it is gaining ground, and the funders leading it are health and humanitarian names rather than sports bodies, which is what makes it worth watching.
Climate is dissolving into other sectors’ budgets. Climate money increasingly arrives inside health, gender, and city funding rather than on a climate page of its own. Nexa, co-led by Grand Challenges Canada and the Science for Africa Foundation, frames climate change as a health delivery crisis; UNICEF reframes water and sanitation as climate-resilience work; the Asian Development Bank’s Laundry Transformation Challenge folds climate, water, and women’s unpaid care into a single call; and across Innovation, mobility and energy programs carry climate objectives at their core. We tracked the blue economy and circular-as-industrial-policy in July. In August the sharper move is climate crossing into health, gender, and urban budgets by design, not by coincidence.
What’s inside
Cross-Cutting / Intersectional Impact (71 opportunities, 10 new): the marquee global funders and genuinely multi-sector calls worth surfacing first, from Gates and the World Bank to adidas and the ADB.
Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment (41 opportunities, 11 new): violence against women funded as coordinated systems, feminist movements resourced for protection and resilience, and gender arriving through other sectors’ doors.
Global Health & WASH (79 opportunities, 24 new): climate written into the definition of health, AI arriving at the point of care, and epidemic preparedness rebuilt around African institutions.
Education, Human Rights & Inclusion (86 opportunities, 36 new): transnational education partnerships as soft power, AI on both sides of state power, and inclusion written into eligibility.
Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Energy & Food (106 opportunities, 25 new): adaptation financed like an asset class, conservation money moving to the moment of protection, and circular work funded as industrial policy.
Humanitarian Aid, Emergency Programming & DRR (32 opportunities, 8 new): protection for people on the move, the UN contracting for readiness rather than one-off projects, and a corporate funder backing recovery through sport.
Innovation, Research & Smart Cities (79 opportunities, 24 new): Europe buying strategic autonomy one consortium at a time, AI funded as scientific infrastructure with trustworthiness attached, and the individual-investigator research machinery at scale.
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Selected Opportunities
Cross-Cutting / Intersectional Impact
Nexa: From Climate Risk to Health Resilience - Transition to Scale Grants, Science for Africa Foundation / Grand Challenges Canada. *New!*
Nexa is a global climate and health initiative co-led by Grand Challenges Canada and the Science for Africa Foundation, with backing from Wellcome Trust, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Sanofi. Its premise is that climate change is not only an environmental crisis but a health delivery crisis, and that the local health actors closest to it are the least resourced to respond. Nexa funds innovations that let communities act on climate-driven health risks, specifically mosquito-borne infection, extreme heat, and poor air quality. Backing solutions that already carry proof-of-concept evidence and can move toward scale signals that the initiative wants field-tested approaches ready to grow, not early experiments. The strongest fits are organizations implementing in Africa or in Latin America and the Caribbean with demonstrated results behind them.
Geographies: Africa (all 54 countries for both tracks) | Latin America & Caribbean (Brazil only for PoC; 28 countries for TTS).
Who can apply: Any incorporated organization is eligible, including companies, social enterprises, NGOs, non-profits, for-profit organizations, and research or academic institutions. Individuals, sole proprietorships, unincorporated trusts, partnerships, and UN agencies are not eligible.
Funding amount: $250,000–$2,000,000 USD Transition to scale.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
Active Play Challenge 2026, Cities for Better Health (Novo Nordisk). *New!*
Cities for Better Health, Novo Nordisk’s global urban health initiative, has launched the Active Play Challenge to fund organizations creating more opportunities for active play for children and young people in cities. The program treats shrinking space for everyday play as a health equity problem: unsafe streets, unequal access, and overscheduled routines raise the risk of childhood obesity and chronic disease. Winning initiatives receive implementation funding plus technical guidance, with three categories spanning spatial design, everyday services, and early years, the last backed by the Van Leer Foundation. The two-stage jury process, with feedback and resubmission for finalists, signals that the partners want implementable, scalable projects, not concepts. The strongest fits are legally registered organizations, especially youth-led ones, already working on play, public space, or child health in underserved communities.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Legally registered organizations worldwide that have the mandate, expertise, and capacity to lead and implement initiatives creating opportunities for active play for children and young people aged 0-25.
Funding amount: USD $50,000 - $100,000 per winning initiative (up to six winners).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 10, 11. Focus: play by design, play in action, play for early years.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Humanitarian Innovation Programme (HIP) Call for Proposals 2026, Innovation Norway. *New!*
The Humanitarian Innovation Programme, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and administered by Innovation Norway, funds humanitarian organizations partnering with private sector actors to co-develop or scale solutions for people affected by crises. The structure is deliberate: the humanitarian organization is always the applicant and grant recipient, with the private sector partner engaged through the project, not as co-applicant. Two streams operate, an Innovation Lab for early-stage co-development and innovation-friendly procurement, and Scaling for solutions already validated with a private partner in pilot. Priorities span green humanitarian response, health and sanitation, protection including sexual and gender-based violence, innovative finance, and food security. Eligibility is narrow: UN agencies, Norwegian-registered INGOs with Norwegian boards, and the Red Cross Movement.
Geographies: Global crisis contexts; applicant headquartered in Norway, or any UN humanitarian agency.
Who can apply: UN agencies with a humanitarian mandate; Norwegian-registered humanitarian INGOs with a Norwegian board; the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC, ICRC); consortia.
Funding amount: Innovation Lab grants NOK 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 (USD ~$375,000 to ~$565,000), up to NOK 8,000,000 (USD ~$750,000) for consortia of three or more; Scaling grants NOK 2,000,000 to 10,000,000 (USD ~$190,000 to ~$940,000). Total envelope historically NOK 100,000,000 (USD ~$9,400,000).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Humanitarian & Emergency Response; SDGs 3, 9, 13, 16, 17. Focus: humanitarian-private sector partnership, green response, protection, innovative finance, food security.
Deadline: August 17, 2026.
Every funded project must engage a private sector partner; the partnership is the methodology, not an enhancement. Name the company, its commercial logic for participating, and the co-design process. A humanitarian project with a vendor attached is not what this program buys.
AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. *New!*
The Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges call, AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning, funds projects deploying conversational AI tools that give women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa personalized contraception information. The round exists to answer an evidence question: which AI-enabled engagement approaches improve contraceptive uptake, continuation, and informed method choice at scale. It seeks teams that pair a working consumer health platform with rigorous measurement of interaction quality and user behavior, feeding a shared evidence base of rubrics, taxonomies, and guardrail protocols. Requiring an existing user base in a target country signals that the grant period is for learning from live deployment, not user acquisition. The strongest fits are digital women’s health platforms operating at engagement scale in priority countries, ready to test family planning content grounded in national guidelines.
Geographies: Africa.
Who can apply: Open globally to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. Multi-stakeholder collaborations are encouraged.
Funding amount: awards of up to $500,000 USD for each project, with a grant term of up to 12 months.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 5. Focus: contraceptive uptake, conversational ai, direct-to-consumer engagement.
Deadline: August 25, 2026.
Recovery Through Sport - Expression of Interest for Strategic Partners, adidas Foundation. *New!*
The adidas Foundation is inviting expressions of interest for Recovery Through Sport, a new program that supports the wellbeing of children and young people rebuilding their lives after crisis, conflict, and displacement. The foundation is not seeking finished projects. It wants up to three long-term strategic partners to shape the program with it, committing multi-year funding built for continuity rather than short cycles. What it seeks to back is credible organizations with mental health and psychosocial support capacity, strong child safeguarding, and operational reach in complex settings, willing to test and build evidence where it remains thin. Requiring documented safeguarding and financial statements up front signals that quality and care come before scale. The strongest fits are humanitarian and sport-for-development organizations ready to co-develop rather than deliver a fixed grant.
Geographies: Global
Who can apply: Humanitarian, nonprofit, and sport-for-development organizations with established mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) capacity, robust child safeguarding systems, operational reach across multiple crisis-affected or displacement settings, experience with sport or physical activity (directly or through a name…
Funding amount: €6,000,000 total funding commitment across all selected partners and potential program activities.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Humanitarian & Disaster Response. Focus: recovery through sport, mhpss, child safeguarding.
Deadline: August 30, 2026.
The Laundry Transformation Challenge, Asian Development Bank (ADB). *New!*
The Asian Development Bank runs the Laundry Transformation Challenge to find and pilot affordable laundry technologies that ease the burden hand washing places on women and on stressed water systems across Asia and the Pacific. ADB frames laundry as a development problem, where hours of unpaid work fall on women and untreated greywater fouls rivers and lakes, and it wants solutions that cut time, water use, and pollution at once. The bank is backing pilots it can evaluate rigorously and hand to a government or private partner to scale, not one-off demonstrations. Scoring that weights impact and scalability above novelty signals a preference for solutions rooted in local systems. The strongest fits are incorporated ventures, nonprofits, or research bodies holding their own technology and real local linkages.
Geographies: Asia and the Pacific (applicants registered in an ADB member country).
Who can apply: Teams of 1 to 10 from legally registered entities (for-profit, nonprofit, research, or government-owned) holding IP rights and local linkages.
Funding amount: Up to USD $450,000 per pilot project; at least 10% co-financing required.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 5, 6, 8, 12. Focus: unpaid care work, water efficiency, inclusive laundry technology.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Better Politics Foundation Resilient Futures Call 2026, Better Politics Foundation. *New!*
The Better Politics Foundation, co-funded with the European Climate Foundation, Naia Trust, and the Vibe Fund, has opened the Resilient Futures Call to seed non-partisan initiatives at the intersection of democratic political leadership and climate resilience. The foundation works from a core argument: climate policy fails not for lack of science but for lack of the political conditions to act on it. Three pathways qualify: bridging climate expertise to political decision-makers, strengthening climate-focused democratic leadership, and cross-sector coalition building across energy, housing, transport, food, and health. A short form with no second proposal stage signals a call designed to catch ideas still being formed. Organizations, networks, collectives, and individuals worldwide may apply for Ideation Grants; Incubation Grants go by nomination only. The strongest fits are locally rooted, non-partisan, and early-stage.
Geographies: Africa, Asia, Europe, Americas, Oceania.
Who can apply: Organizations and individuals.
Funding amount: Grants range USD $10,000 - $50,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy.
Deadline: September 4, 2026.
Cross-Cutting / Intersectional Impact: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (10 new opportunities!)
71 funding opportunities - the calls whose ambitions cross sectors by design, backed this month by the marquee funders large enough to work across all of them at once.
Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Energy & Food
Carbon to Value Initiative Year 6 Cohort, Carbon to Value Initiative (Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon, Greentown Labs, Fraunhofer USA). *New!*
The Carbon to Value Initiative treats the carbontech economy as an active commercial frontier rather than a distant prospect, and it built its accelerator to close the gap between promising science and real deployment. The program convenes selected startups with its Carbontech Leadership Council, an invitation-only group of corporate executives from the energy, materials, and chemical sectors who co-develop pilots, validate use cases, and broker partnerships. This is not grant funding; it is structured access to the rooms where commercialization decisions get made. Curating that corporate council as the core of the offer signals that the initiative sees market pull, not capital alone, as what moves carbontech to scale. The strongest fits are carbon capture, conversion, or sequestration startups with a working technology and a real appetite for their first serious industry partners.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Startups at TRL 4-7 developing carbontech solutions across carbon capture, conversion to value-added products, or sequestration and removal. Must be actively investigating product-market fit and seeking commercialization partnerships. Open to applicants worldwide; no minimum or maximum funding requirement.
Funding amount: Each selected startup will be awarded a discretionary stipend of up to $10,000 in non-dilutive funding to support their participation in the accelerator.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment.
Deadline: August 28, 2026.
NEB Academy | Fashion Shift Open Call, EIT Culture & Creativity. *New!*
EIT Culture & Creativity opens its NEB Academy Fashion Shift call to fund collaborative consortia rebuilding the European fashion industry around circular, regenerative, and responsible business models. The community is putting cascade funding behind solutions that are already validated and close to market rather than early-stage research, because it wants proof that sustainable fashion can hold up commercially. It seeks to back projects that carry a real product, service, or hub into wider uptake while embedding New European Bauhaus values of sustainability, inclusion, and beauty across the value chain. Requiring consortia that pair an established fashion SME with research, public, and value-chain partners signals that the funder treats systemic change as a shared effort. The strongest fits are cross-sector teams with market-ready circular fashion solutions ready to scale.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Only consortia may apply, composed of a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 6 independent legal entities from at least two eligible countries. Each consortium must include at least an independent fashion SME (operating for a minimum of 3 years), a research institution, a public authority or innovation/industry cluster, and o…
Funding amount: Maximum EUR 500,000 per project (funding rate up to 100%); total call budget up to EUR 2,500,000 for approximately 5 projects.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; SDGs 9, 12, 13. Focus: circular fashion, textile sustainability, fashion value chain.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Call for Proposals: AI for Climate Resilience in Africa, UbuntuNet Alliance. *New!*
UbuntuNet Alliance, the regional research and education network serving eastern and southern Africa, is inviting university-based teams to turn working AI prototypes into climate resilience tools that real users can operate. Funded by the European Union through the AfricaConnect 4 project, the call backs solutions that already exist in the lab and need support to reach communities, cooperatives, and public agencies facing droughts, floods, and heat. The design rewards teams that name a specific user, build on data and infrastructure they already have, and can show working results within a year, signaling that the funder wants deployment over demonstration and utility over novelty. Proposals leaning on superficial AI are ruled out. The strongest fits are African university teams with a tested prototype and a clear local climate problem to solve.
Geographies: Eastern Africa, Southern Africa.
Who can apply: University-led research teams based in UbuntuNet Alliance member countries (Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe).
Funding amount: US$ 10,000 per award; 16 awards available.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; SDGs 9, 13. Focus: ai for climate, climate services, disaster risk reduction.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Innovate Africa Challenge 2026 - AI Solutions for Climate-Smart Agriculture, Smart Africa. *New!*
Smart Africa and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are running the Innovate Africa Challenge for startups building AI tools for climate-smart agriculture across Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda. The two bodies want mature, deployable solutions rather than early concepts, and they pair winners with government ministries and agricultural stakeholders to put those tools into real farming systems. The design signals a preference for innovations that can scale inside national programs, not sit in a pilot. By asking applicants to operate in a focus country and work alongside public agencies, Smart Africa treats deployment and government partnership as the central reward. The strongest fits are for-profit ventures with proven AI products for smallholder agriculture, ready to grow through public-sector channels.
Geographies: Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda).
Who can apply: Startups and innovators with mature, AI-enabled solutions for climate-smart agriculture. Based on prior editions, the applicant must be a legally incorporated for-profit entity registered in a Smart Africa Alliance member state and in operation for at least six months, willing to deploy the solution in one of the focus…
Funding amount: No fixed award amount is published on the call page.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems. Focus: artificial intelligence, climate adaptation, smallholder agriculture.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
COP31 Call for Proposals: Evidence for Climate Action (E4CA) Program, Evidence for Climate Action (E4CA) / DEval. *New!*
Evidence for Climate Action, run by DEval and the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group, exists to move rigorous published research into the center of global climate policy debate. For COP31 in Turkey, E4CA is curating a program of evidence-based sessions drawn from completed, peer-reviewed studies and formally released evaluations, pairing presenters with complementary researchers for comparative discussion across sixteen thematic tracks. By admitting only finalized, published evidence and judging on scientific rigor, policy relevance, and clarity of communication, the platform signals that it is building a credible bridge between researchers and decision-makers rather than a conventional conference panel. The strongest fits are researchers, evaluators, and practitioners with finished climate evidence who want it heard where climate policy is actually negotiated.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Researchers, evaluators, and practitioners with completed, published research on climate and environmental action. Eligible submissions must be grounded in peer-reviewed publications, published reports, or formally released evaluations.
Funding amount: N/A.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Call for proposals: IFAD grant to implement the initiative “Leveraging IFAD’s Rural Sector Performance Assessment for Policy and Investment”, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). *New!*
The International Fund for Agricultural Development is opening a call for a single organization or consortium to strengthen its Rural Sector Performance Assessment, the tool it uses to gauge how well countries create conditions for rural development. IFAD wants the assessment reviewed, its methodology simplified, and its indicators sharpened so the next edition can score roughly 80 countries with more credibility. The design signals that IFAD sees policy measurement as the lever that shapes where rural investment flows, and it wants a partner grounded in both rural development and rigorous assessment methods. The counterpart contribution and eligibility self-certification signal a preference for institutions with the standing to carry a global benchmarking product. The strongest fits are research institutes, universities, and think tanks with rural policy and quantitative benchmarking experience.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Non-profit organizations, private sector companies, universities, think tanks, and research institutes. A single organization or a consortium of recipients may apply.
Funding amount: up to US$1.2 million.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems; SDGs 1, 2. Focus: rural sector performance assessment, policy and investment environment, methodology and indicators.
Deadline: September 4, 2026.
Bridging the Cold Chain Gap Challenge for Last-Mile Vendors, Asian Development Bank (ADB). *New!*
The Asian Development Bank runs the Bridging the Cold Chain Gap Challenge to fund and pilot affordable cooling solutions for India’s smallest fruit and vegetable sellers, the informal vendors who operate without refrigeration. The bank is directing money toward a segment its existing cold chain investments miss, since organized storage serves formal retail rather than the street. What it wants to back is a working pilot that cuts spoilage, protects vendor income, and proves a model that could scale across Asia and the Pacific. Opening the call to companies, nonprofits, research groups, and autonomous state enterprises while asking for modest cost sharing signals that ADB wants committed operators who can deploy in a real market. The strongest fits are teams with deployable cooling technology suited to India’s informal vendors.
Geographies: Southern Asia (India).
Who can apply: For-profit entities, not-for-profit organizations, civil society organizations, research institutions, and government-owned enterprises that are legally and financially autonomous of the government in the implementation country. Individuals are not eligible; all team members must be at least 18 years of age.
Funding amount: Up to USD 450,000 (grant funding for selected pilot projects), with a 10% co-financing requirement.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems; SDGs 2, 8, 12. Focus: cold chain, post-harvest loss, last-mile vendors.
Deadline: September 4, 2026.
PowerUp NetZero - Open Call for Innovation Projects, PowerUp NetZero. *New!*
PowerUp NetZero, a European cluster initiative backing small and medium enterprises in the clean energy transition, opens its call for innovation projects in net-zero technology. The program channels support to small consortia building and demonstrating solutions across solar energy, battery storage, hydrogen, sustainable biogas, and carbon capture. PowerUp NetZero wants market-ready technology, not lab curiosities, so it funds proof of concept, pilots, and demonstration work in real operational settings. Requiring two to three companies per project signals that the funder values collaboration among firms that can carry an innovation from prototype toward deployment. A co-financing share keeps applicants invested in commercial outcomes. The strongest fits are established European SMEs and start-ups with a validated financial year and a credible plan to bring net-zero solutions to market.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Consortia of 2 to 3 SMEs (including start-ups qualifying as SMEs) established in an EU Member State or a country participating in the Single Market Programme, each with at least one closed and validated financial year. No double funding, no conflict of interest; consortium members must not overlap across applications.
Funding amount: EUR 80,000 to EUR 120,000 per project (max EUR 60,000 per SME); funding rate up to 80%; total call budget EUR 1,615,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment. Focus: solar energy, battery and energy storage, hydrogen technologies.
Deadline: September 15, 2026.
Climate Resilience Awards for Business 2026, Global Resilience Partnership. *New!*
The Global Resilience Partnership, together with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, runs the Climate Resilience Awards for Business to recognize companies whose projects strengthen resilience to climate change through real-world action and measurable results. The partners want business resilience work, which they see as underfunded next to mitigation, to become more visible, investable, and scalable. They back credible, evidenced projects across infrastructure, water stewardship, agriculture and food systems, and workforce protection, judging impact and implementation over ambition. By having small and midsize firms compete separately from large corporations and publishing finalists as public case studies, the awards signal that they value demonstrable practice and want to build a shared evidence base. The strongest fits are businesses and solution providers that can prove resilience outcomes with hard data.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Business organizations of all sizes, sectors, and geographic locations. Two applicant types are welcome: Resilience & Adaptation Implementers (organizations improving the resilience or adaptive capacity of their own operations, assets, people, or infrastructure within and beyond their value chain) and Resilience Soluti…
Funding amount: Recognition and network, no funding attached.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; SDGs 2, 6, 9, 11, 13. Focus: climate-proof infrastructure, water stewardship, agriculture and food systems resilience.
Deadline: September 30, 2026.
Cookstoves Call4Solutions, Solar Impulse Foundation. *New!*
Solar Impulse Foundation and Winds of Hope Foundation share a conviction: clean cooking is one of the highest-leverage interventions available today for health, climate, and gender equity simultaneously. Their joint Cookstoves Call4Solutions selects ten proven clean cooking technologies or delivery models, awarding them visibility, the SIF Efficient Solution Label, network access, and catalytic funding of CHF 10,000 per winner. Solutions at any organizational stage are eligible, provided they demonstrate real-world implementation, measurable health or environmental benefits (MTF Tier 4+ standard), and a credible path to scale. The call particularly values locally-led initiatives, women-led enterprises, PAYGO financing models, and solutions operating in refugee or displacement settings. Anyone who knows of a qualifying solution can submit, not just the solution owner.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Anyone aware of or developing an innovative clean cooking solution meeting the eligibility criteria. Applicants do not need to be the solution owner or creator. Solutions must be a product (digital or physical), service, or process with: proven implementation or market traction;.
Funding amount: Up to CHF 10,000 in catalytic funding to one organization out of the cohort of 10.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment.
Deadline: September 30, 2026.
Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA): Asia-Pacific Call for Proposals 2026, Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). *New!*
The Climate Technology Centre and Network has opened its Asia Pacific call under the Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator, backing innovative approaches to climate adaptation. CTCN is using the accelerator to move promising local solutions from pilot toward scale, tackling the financial, regulatory, and capacity barriers that usually stall adaptation technology. Rather than transferring cash, it delivers technical assistance, specialized expertise, and network connections, signaling that it values building institutional strength as much as funding an idea. The program seeks transformative, locally led work that strengthens resilience in vulnerable communities, with priority to Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. The strongest fits are organizations in developing Asia Pacific countries, endorsed by their National Designated Entity, that pair genuine innovation with a credible path to lasting impact.
Geographies: Asia, Oceania.
Who can apply: Organizations based in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have officially nominated a National Designated Entity (NDE) to the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism.
Funding amount: Up to USD 150,000 in technical assistance per project.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; SDGs 1, 2, 13. Focus: nature-based solutions, community-based adaptation, disaster risk reduction.
Deadline: October 7, 2026.
Seedbed Venture Catalyst Call for Startups, EIT Food. *New!*
EIT Food runs the Seedbed Venture Catalyst Call for Startups to back founding teams already inside its venture building program who have hit a concrete blocker that outside money can clear. The funder works through seven venture builders across Europe, and this call targets the moment when a promising food team needs to produce a test batch, secure intellectual property, negotiate a first contract, or keep a co-founder on board. EIT Food is funding the gap between a scientific idea and an investor-ready company, treating early friction as something worth removing rather than testing. Reserving the call for teams inside partner programs signals that they want vetted ventures with committed builders behind them. The strongest fits are pre-incorporation food and agrifood teams working with a Seedbed partner.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Startup teams created by the Venture Builders in the EIT Food Seedbed Venture Catalyst programme. Eligible teams are registered in the programme but not yet incorporated as legal entities.
Funding amount: Total EUR 480,000 available; individual awards up to EUR 30,000 per venture project.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems; SDGs 2, 9, 12. Focus: food startups, novel ingredients, deep-tech food.
Deadline: January 27, 2027.
Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Energy & Food: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (25 new opportunities!)
106 funding opportunities - Adaptation is being financed like an asset class, conservation money is moving to the moment of protection, and circular work is funded as industrial policy.
Gender Equality & Women Empowerment
Girls for the Boardroom (G4B) Fellowship 2026, The Girls Pride Initiatives for Sustainable Development. *New!*
The Girls Pride Initiatives for Sustainable Development runs the Girls for the Boardroom Fellowship, a ten-week leadership and mentorship program for girls and young women preparing to step into rooms where decisions get made. The initiative pairs each participant with a mentor and builds skills through governance exposure, community-impact projects, and a global peer network, treating early leadership practice as what makes later leadership possible. What it wants to back is confidence in girls who contribute before anyone grants permission. Opening the fellowship to applicants aged thirteen to twenty-five from every country, and welcoming seasoned young leaders and beginners alike, signals that the funder treats leadership as a capacity to cultivate rather than a credential to reward. The strongest fits are girls ready to grow into decision-makers.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Girls and young women aged 13 to 25 worldwide; individual applicants, no organization required.
Funding amount: No cash grant; a ten-week leadership and mentorship fellowship with a global peer network.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 4, 5, 10. Focus: girls’ leadership, mentorship, civic participation.
Deadline: August 7, 2026.
Investing in Women’s Rights Organisations and Networks in Africa (2026 Call for Proposals), Urgent Action Fund-Africa. *New!*
Urgent Action Fund-Africa opens its 2026 call, Investing in Women’s Rights Organisations and Networks in Africa, to resource feminist organizations, activists, and networks across ten African countries. The fund works through trust-based, flexible grantmaking, treating women’s rights organizations as long-term agents of structural change rather than one-off project vehicles. It seeks to back institutional resilience, collective feminist organizing, protection for women human rights defenders, and feminist knowledge production, across democratic governance, gendered justice, and bodily autonomy. Four funding windows and a paired capacity assessment signal that the fund is investing in organizations as a whole, not isolated activities. The strongest fits are locally rooted, women-led groups centering structurally excluded women in complex, crisis-affected settings.
Geographies: Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe).
Who can apply: Registered women’s rights and women-led organizations, feminist networks, and consortia based in Africa, implementing in one of the ten focus countries.
Funding amount: USD $35,000 to $200,000 across four windows, over 24 to 30 months.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 5, 10, 16. Focus: women human rights defenders, civic space, movement resilience.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
Aligning Evidence to Build Coalitions for Accelerated Results at Scale for Adolescent Girls, UNICEF. *New!*
The United Nations Children’s Fund is inviting partners to help make adolescent girls a named priority in how governments plan, budget, and finance development. UNICEF sees a persistent gap between what the evidence says works for girls and what actually reaches national policy and spending decisions, and this call is built to close it. The work backs a partner who can produce a credible investment case, document where governments have scaled girl-focused programs, and convene donors, academia, and girls’ movements around shared commitments. Weighting local experience and convening power above technical delivery signals that UNICEF wants influence inside government rooms, not another report. The strongest fits are organizations that pair research authority on financing for girls with real standing to move policy across country contexts.
Geographies: Kenya.
Who can apply: Civil society organizations with research and policy-influence capacity on adolescent girls, able to work across country contexts.
Funding amount: Not disclosed; UNICEF negotiates the budget with the selected partner.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 4, 5, 10, 17. Focus: adolescent girls’ rights, investment cases, coalition building.
Deadline: August 13, 2026.
Invitation for Concept Notes for Health/SRHR Development Research Cooperation in LMICs or Ukraine, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, is inviting concept notes for research cooperation partnerships in human health and sexual and reproductive health and rights in low and lower-middle income countries and Ukraine. Sida is using this call as a first step toward long-term partnerships, and it wants research that strengthens local capacity and puts knowledge to work where health systems are under-resourced. What it seeks to back is equitable collaboration, where agendas are set jointly and the greater share of resources stays with researchers in partner countries. The design signals this clearly, requiring a Swedish organization alongside genuine LMIC or Ukrainian partners and prioritizing countries where Sweden already cooperates. The strongest fits are universities and research organizations with a proven health or SRHR track record and deep partner relationships.
Geographies: Ukraine; Bolivia; Mozambique; Rwanda; Tanzania; Ethiopia; Uganda; Vietnam.
Who can apply: Swedish universities and research organizations with strong links to LMICs or Ukraine. Organizations based in other countries may apply provided the initiative is carried out in partnership with at least one Swedish university or research organization and the consortium has strong links to LMICs or Ukraine.
Funding amount: SEK 8-14 million (Sida-funding requested per initiative).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs: SDG3; SDG5; SDG17; Focus areas: SRHR; research capacity building; global health; equitable research partnerships; health equity.
Deadline: August 16, 2026.
A Swedish university or research partner is mandatory and the greater share of resources must stay with researchers in the partner country, so equitable consortium design with genuine LMIC or Ukrainian links is the real entry ticket.
Call for Submissions: Anthology of Resistance, We Are Feminist Leaders. *New!*
We Are Feminist Leaders is inviting creative submissions to an open-access Anthology of Resistance, a global collection of poems, short prose, visual art, photo essays, and reflective exercises. The organization is using the anthology to gather and preserve stories of how feminists are meeting violence, backlash, and climate crisis with courage, connection, and new forms of leadership. It seeks the messy, uncertain, and tender expressions of resistance that are usually erased or marginalized, not polished work from established artists. By declining to judge on technical merit and selecting instead for geographic and thematic breadth, the call signals that it values whose voices are heard over craft. The strongest fits are feminist individuals, collectives, and grassroots groups worldwide who want their lived experience of resistance seen and shared.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Feminists of any gender worldwide, as individuals, collectives, or groups; no professional-artist requirement.
Funding amount: No cash award; selected works are published in a global open-access anthology.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 5, 10, 16. Focus: feminist movements, resistance narratives, creative expression.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
EDCTP Prizes 2027 - Scientific Leadership Prize for a Woman resident of an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country, Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking. *New!*
Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking runs the Scientific Leadership Prize to recognize a mid-career woman researcher, based in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country, for outstanding global health research. The joint undertaking uses the prize to reward scientists who advance research on infectious diseases affecting sub-Saharan Africa while building lasting research capacity there. It seeks to back women whose achievements include mentoring and training the next generation of African researchers and strengthening South to South and North to South collaboration. Judging weights continued leadership potential as heavily as demonstrated contribution to the program’s mission, signaling that the funder is honoring trajectory, not only a single result. The strongest fits are established women scientists in European research systems whose global health work has grown African research talent.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Female natural persons under the age of 50 on the launch date of the contest who are permanent residents of an EU Member State or a country associated with the Horizon Europe programme, and who have made significant contributions to global health research within the scope of Global Health EDCTP3.
Funding amount: EUR 15,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 5, 17. Focus: global health research, research capacity strengthening, gender equity in research.
Deadline: September 2, 2026.
Gender Equality Partnerships 2026, British Council. *New!*
The British Council, through its Going Global Partnerships program, invites universities and further-education institutions to apply for Gender Equality Partnership grants that pair a UK institution with a partner in one of seven countries to advance gender equality across higher and further education. The British Council uses these paired projects to move beyond one-off interventions toward lasting institutional change, backing work that makes campuses safer for women, opens leadership and STEM pathways, and strengthens routes into employment for women graduates. Requiring each partnership to be designed by the overseas lead and submitted through the UK partner signals that the funder wants shared ownership and mutual learning rather than a donor-recipient posture. The strongest fits are higher and vocational education institutions with a gender agenda and a committed cross-border collaborator.
Geographies: UK paired with a partner country: Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, or Ukraine.
Who can apply: Universities and further-education providers with degree-awarding powers; each bid pairs a UK lead with a partner-country lead institution.
Funding amount: GBP £20,000 to £25,000 per 12-month project (about USD $27,000 to $34,000).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; SDGs 4, 5, 8, 10. Focus: safe campuses, women’s leadership, STEM access, graduate employability.
Deadline: September 21, 2026.
Gender Equality & Women Empowerment: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (11 new opportunities!)
41 funding opportunities - violence against women is being funded as a system rather than a program, feminist movements are resourced to protect themselves, gender keeps arriving through other sectors
Global Health & WASH
Initiative First Food Madagascar, UNICEF. *New!*
The United Nations Children’s Fund is seeking implementing partners for Initiative First Food Madagascar, the country rollout of its First Foods Africa drive to end child food poverty and malnutrition. The strategy works the food system itself: encouraging local production of nutritious young-child foods, shaping policy so standards and access improve, and building demand so nutritious local food becomes the default choice for caregivers. The Madagascar call mirrors that breadth, spanning infant and young child feeding, agricultural inputs and smallholder market support, food security analysis, water and hygiene, and communication for development. Recruiting through the UN Partner Portal signals a working partnership with the country office, favoring organizations already assessed by UN agencies. The strongest fits are civil society organizations pairing community nutrition delivery with agricultural livelihoods work in Madagascar.
Geographies: Africa (Madagascar).
Who can apply: Civil society organizations (national and international NGOs) registered on the UN Partner Portal; UNICEF selects implementing partner(s) through this partnership opportunity.
Funding amount: No fixed award amount is published on the call page.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 2, 3. Focus: first foods, complementary feeding, local food production.
Deadline: August 10, 2026.
LMIC Capacity and Capability Building Grant, International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). *New!*
The International Society for Quality in Health Care opens its LMIC Capacity and Capability Building Grant to fund a single project that strengthens healthcare quality and patient safety in low and lower-middle-income countries. ISQua is directing the award toward building local capability rather than importing outside expertise, backing work in workforce development, quality improvement collaboratives, patient safety, leadership, digital quality systems, and community education. What it wants to grow is durable in-country capacity that outlasts the grant, which is why applicants must be based in and actively working in the regions they serve. Requiring patient and community co-design signals that ISQua treats lived experience as central to quality, not decorative. The strongest fits are ISQua members leading practical, measurable improvement efforts inside under-resourced health systems.
Geographies: LIC’s and LMIC’s.
Who can apply: The proposer (project leader) must be an ISQua Member, either Institutional or Individual, and must be based in and actively working in a low- or lower-middle-income country as classified by the World Bank (2026). Project teams may include non-members. The project must include patient/community co-design.
Funding amount: €15,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health. Focus: patient safety, quality improvement collaboratives, healthcare workforce development.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
MQ Mental Health Research Schizophrenia Research Fellowship 2026, MQ Mental Health Research. *New!*
MQ Mental Health Research is funding a Schizophrenia Research Fellowship for early career scientists worldwide, backed by Nikki Fa Fond hosted by Fondation Philanthropia. MQ names schizophrenia as underfunded and inadequately treated, and it is using three year fellowships to pull postdoctoral talent into the field and keep it there. The call favors focused, feasible projects that build on existing data and infrastructure and reach clinically meaningful outcomes, including cognitive and negative symptoms, treatment resistance, and early intervention, signaling that MQ wants translation within the award window, not open ended discovery. Early stage drug discovery is out of scope, and lived experience involvement is expected throughout. The strongest fits are postdoctoral researchers three to seven years out with a credible path to independence and patient centered study designs.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Early-career mental health researchers anywhere in the world with a minimum of 3 and no more than 7 years of postdoctoral research experience, based at a university, hospital, or research institution.
Funding amount: up to £250,000 over three years.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3. Focus: schizophrenia, psychosis, mental health research.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant for All (AARGA) Program, Alzheimer’s Association. *New!*
The Alzheimer’s Association opens its Research Grant for All to early-career investigators building the foundations of a dementia research career. The program funds newly independent assistant professors to generate preliminary data, test procedures, and sharpen hypotheses, the groundwork that later wins federal and other major grants. The Association is seeding the next generation of scientists rather than backing established labs, and it welcomes work across basic science, translational studies, clinical research, and psychosocial investigation, signaling that it reads the dementia field as broad and interconnected. Its emphasis on researchers from underrepresented backgrounds, and its partnership with Brain Canada for Canadian applicants, shows a deliberate widening of who does this science. The strongest fits are recently appointed faculty in Alzheimer’s and related dementia research who need pilot funding to become independent.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: U.S. and international early-career researchers who hold a doctoral degree (PhD or equivalent) and a full-time Assistant Professor (or equivalent, including Research Assistant Professor) position at a not-for-profit academic, medical, or research institution, and who have held that position for no more than seven years…
Funding amount: Up to $200,000 total (direct and indirect costs); maximum $70,000 per year.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3. Focus: alzheimers research, dementia, early-career investigators.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Urban Dengue Control Innovation Challenge, Asian Development Bank (ADB). *New!*
The Asian Development Bank runs its Technology Innovation Challenge as a search for proven technologies ready to leave the lab, and this call turns that search toward dengue in Sri Lanka’s crowded cities. ADB wants bio-enabled and digitally powered tools that can complement the spraying and larviciding that insecticide resistance and denser urban growth have started to outpace. What it funds is a real pilot, run in actual neighborhoods, that generates the field evidence governments need before they commit to scaling. Requiring co-financing and local ties signals that ADB is backing teams already invested in the market, not visitors testing a demo. The strongest fits are technology providers, research institutions, and social enterprises with a working vector control solution and a genuine plan to prove it where dengue hits hardest.
Geographies: Asia, Oceania (Sri Lanka).
Who can apply: For-profit companies, non-profit organizations, civil society organizations, research institutions, and legally and financially autonomous government-owned enterprises.
Funding amount: Up to USD 450,000 per pilot project (10% co-financing required).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 11. Focus: dengue, vector-borne disease, mosquito surveillance.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Africa Health Collaborative Research Fund 2026, Africa Health Collaborative. *New!*
The Africa Health Collaborative opens its 2026 Research Fund to early career researchers at its member universities, backing collaborative studies on how primary health care systems are staffed and paid for. The collaborative is using seed money to grow a generation of African-led health systems scholars, funding the partnerships, exchange visits, and preliminary evidence that later attract larger grants. It wants to strengthen policy on health financing and the health workforce, the quieter structural questions that determine whether clinics function. By requiring at least two member institutions on every team and reserving lead roles for local researchers, the fund signals that it values durable cross-border academic ties over one-off projects. The strongest fits are early career health systems researchers at member institutions ready to build a multi-country collaboration.
Geographies: Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Canada).
Who can apply: Early Career Researchers (ECRs) affiliated with an Africa Health Collaborative member institution. Proposals must be collaborative, involving at least two AHC member institutions (bilateral) or three or more (multilateral), and must include master’s, doctoral, or postdoctoral trainees on the team.
Funding amount: Bilateral projects: Up to USD 22,000 (USD 11,000 per participating institution); Multilateral projects: USD 11,000 per participating institution.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health. Focus: health systems research, health policy, health workforce.
Deadline: August 15, 2026.
Gustave Roussy Prize 2027, Fondation Gustave Roussy.
Fondation Gustave Roussy, the philanthropic arm of Europe’s leading cancer center, opens its annual Gustave Roussy Prize to recognize a researcher whose discoveries in cancer diagnosis, treatment, or prevention have improved patient care. Run with founding sponsor Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, the foundation pairs personal recognition with a working research budget, signaling that it wants the prize to fund the laureate’s next project rather than applaud past work. It seeks contributions that translate into lasting benefit for patients, judged on scientific excellence and clinical impact by an independent international jury. Opening the call to researchers of any nationality, discipline, or affiliation signals a deliberately wide search for the strongest oncology science. The strongest fits are established cancer researchers with a discovery that has already changed how patients are diagnosed or treated.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Established cancer researchers of any nationality or affiliation whose discoveries have improved patient care.
Funding amount: Approximately $216,000 USD (EUR 200,000).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDG3. Focus: cancer research impact.
Deadline: August 26, 2026.
This prize is forward-looking despite honoring past work, the budget is meant to fund the laureate’s next project, so the jury wants a discovery that has already changed patient care and momentum still to come. Foreground the concrete clinical difference your work has made, then hint at where it goes next, so the panel sees an investment rather than a retrospective.
Call for Applications for Fund Managers: Driving Impact through Innovative Financing, Aqua for All. *New!*
Aqua for All, in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, is channeling catalytic capital to impact fund managers closing the water and sanitation gap in least-developed and lower-income countries. Under ‘Driving Impact through Innovative Financing,’ the program offers two tracks: first-loss equity to de-risk water and sanitation funds (Track A) and performance-based incentive facilities tied to measurable service delivery outcomes (Track B). Both tracks pair capital with tailored technical assistance, signaling that the program aims to build self-sustaining water finance vehicles, not just deploy one-time grants. The six-times leverage target signals an expectation of significant private co-investment from development finance institutions and institutional investors. The strongest fits are impact fund managers with clear water and sanitation mandates serving LDCs or LMICs, particularly in Africa and Asia.
Geographies: Africa, Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, Oceania.
Who can apply: Fund managers.
Funding amount: Investment between €1-5M into private funds, as well as technical assistance of up to €150,000 for fund managers and/or investees.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: WASH.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Halton Foundation Grant Program 2026 (Indoor Environmental Quality Research), Halton Foundation. *New!*
The Halton Foundation runs an annual grant program backing non-profit research into indoor environmental quality and the human wellbeing that depends on it. The foundation grew out of a company that engineers indoor climate systems, and it puts money toward the science behind cleaner air, better thermal conditions, and fewer illnesses tied to the spaces where people spend most of their time. It funds work that turns those questions into usable evidence and practical solutions, from low-cost air quality monitors to methods for removing airborne pollutants. Keeping awards modest and capping overhead tightly signals that it wants dollars going to the research itself, not institutional machinery. The strongest fits are universities, research institutes, and registered charities pursuing measurable improvements in how buildings affect health.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Registered non-profit organizations worldwide, including universities, research institutes, registered charities, and NGOs, whose projects directly address indoor environmental quality, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, or IEQ-linked illness and human wellbeing indoors.
Funding amount: Up to $30,000 USD per year.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 11. Focus: indoor air quality, thermal comfort, ventilation.
Deadline: September 1, 2026.
Accelerating the Development of Combined CGM-Pump Devices, Breakthrough T1D. *New!*
Breakthrough T1D, the global type 1 diabetes research and advocacy nonprofit, is inviting applications for research and development on devices that combine a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump into a single piece of hardware. The organization casts itself as a catalytic funder, backing feasibility studies, benchtop and preclinical validation, and early clinical evaluation to de-risk a technology industry has been slow to integrate. It wants systems that solve barriers like sensor accuracy near insulin delivery and mismatched device lifespans, not incremental gains in sensing or delivery alone. Requiring a clear commercialization path and encouraging pump and sensor makers to collaborate, it signals that only integrated products people can wear will count. The strongest fits are research teams and device companies with a credible route from prototype to clinic.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Domestic and foreign non-profit organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local government, and eligible federal agencies.
Funding amount: up to a total of $900,000 USD for up to three years.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 9. Focus: diabetes technology, medical devices, continuous glucose monitoring.
Deadline: September 2, 2026.
Multiplex Platforms to Assess Indicators of Micronutrient Status, Inflammation and Infectious Disease, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. *New!*
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through its Grand Challenges initiative, invites proposals to build better multiplex platforms that measure micronutrient status alongside markers of infection and inflammation. The foundation wants affordable laboratory tests that national and regional reference labs can run at scale, replacing costly population surveys and shipping blood samples to specialized labs abroad. It is backing assays that widen analytical coverage to hard-to-measure nutrients like folate and vitamin B12, tighten precision, and hold down cost and sample volume. By funding two scope tiers and encouraging collaboration across metabolism, immunology, and biomolecule expertise, the foundation is signaling that it wants working reference tools, not incremental refinements or commercialization-only efforts. The strongest fits are teams combining assay innovation with a credible path into low- and middle-income reference laboratories.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. Only applicants applying through a legally recognized corporate entity are eligible.
Funding amount: Alternative A (minimum scope): awards up to US$200,000 per project, grant term up to 12 months. Alternative B (optimistic scope): awards up to US$800,000 per project, grant term up to 24 months.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 2, 3. Focus: multiplex immunoassay, micronutrient status, inflammation and infection biomarkers.
Deadline: September 8, 2026.
VII International Zendal Awards, Zendal. *New!*
Zendal, a Spanish biopharmaceutical group, is running the seventh edition of its International Zendal Awards, recognizing institutions whose work advances human and animal health through vaccines, biotechnology, and disease prevention. The company frames the two prizes around the One Health idea that human and animal health are a single system, and it rewards projects still in research, development, or pre-commercial scaling rather than finished products. What Zendal seeks to back is scientific work with a credible path from the lab to real prevention and treatment. Allowing an optional endorsement letter from a scientific or academic body, and welcoming multiple independent projects per team, signals that the group values peer-validated rigor over polish. The strongest fits are universities, research institutes, hospitals, and health-focused startups turning early science into applied solutions.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Public and private institutions worldwide, including universities, hospitals, research centers, foundations, NGOs, government bodies, and startups, that develop projects related to vaccines, prevention, biotechnology, new therapies, diagnostics, or the One Health approach.
Funding amount: Human Health Award EUR €40,000; Animal Health Award EUR €25,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3, 9. Focus: vaccine development, veterinary health, biomedical innovation.
Deadline: September 19, 2026.
Job Research Foundation Grant Program (2027 Research Grant, 9th Round), Job Research Foundation. *New!*
Job Research Foundation funds scientific research into the causes of and treatments for Job Syndrome, a rare multisystem immunodeficiency disorder. The Foundation backs investigator-led projects at qualified research institutions, awarding two-year grants meant to move a small, underserved patient community closer to a cure. It looks for work that connects directly to Job Syndrome and shows a credible path to improving patient outcomes, with special weight given to pulmonary complications and the therapies that address them. Requiring institutional supervision, milestone-linked second-year payments, and annual reporting signals a funder that wants disciplined, accountable science rather than open-ended exploration. Collaboration across institutions is welcomed, and prior applicants may return to extend promising lines of work. The strongest fits are researchers with rare-disease immunology expertise, an institutional home, and a clear translational aim.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Researchers worldwide investigating the causes of and treatments for Job Syndrome. The research must be selected and supervised by a qualified public charity (e.g., a university, hospital, or research institute), and grant funds are disbursed to that institution rather than to the individual researcher.
Funding amount: Two 2-year grants of up to $200,000 each.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Health; SDGs 3. Focus: job syndrome, ad-hies, primary immunodeficiency.
Deadline: October 16, 2026.
Global Health & WASH: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (24 new opportunities!)
79 funding opportunities - Climate is being written into the definition of health, AI is arriving at the point of care, and epidemic preparedness is being rebuilt around African institutions.
Humanitarian Aid and Emergency Programming
GENERAL FOOD AND CASH ASSISTANCE, October 2026 - December 2027, World Food Programme (WFP). *New!*
The United Nations World Food Programme opens this call for expression of interest to find cooperating partners that can deliver general food and cash assistance to communities near the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine. WFP wants organizations already working inside the affected oblasts, with field staff, warehouse capacity, and the standing to coordinate with local authorities on who qualifies. The scoring leans heavily on proven experience and on protection, safeguarding, and compliance, signaling that WFP values reliable local delivery over the lowest bid. Food commodities come from WFP; the partner handles targeting, storage, transport, direct distribution, and registering families for cash support. The strongest fits are national and international relief organizations with an operational footprint in Kharkiv, Kherson, and the surrounding regions.
Geographies: Eastern Europe (Ukraine).
Who can apply: Cooperating Partners: national and international NGOs/civil society organizations with the capacity to deliver general food and cash assistance in the specified Ukrainian oblasts, using their own paid field-based staff, with warehouse capacity located within the rayon/area of operations and the ability to coordinate wi…
Funding amount: Indicative Budget: - (not disclosed).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Humanitarian & Disaster Response; SDGs 1, 2. Focus: general food distribution, cash based transfers, beneficiary targeting.
Deadline: August 9, 2026.
Selection of Implementing Partner(s) for Child Protection Case Management, Capacity Strengthening and Integrated Protection Services in Esmeraldas and Guayaquil, UNICEF. *New!*
UNICEF is seeking implementing partners for child protection work in Ecuador’s Esmeraldas and Guayaquil provinces, where armed violence, territorial control, and displacement expose children to recruitment, family separation, and school dropout. The call funds three complementary lines: integrated case management for children whose rights have been violated, capacity strengthening for local institutions and community actors, and integrated protection services through the Espacio de Apoyo Integral in Esmeraldas. Partners must work through existing referral routes and local protection institutions rather than build parallel services, signaling that UNICEF wants local systems strengthened, not substituted. Organizations can apply to one or both components, only in territories where they can demonstrate operational capacity. The strongest fits are Ecuadorian child protection organizations with territorial presence and proven case management practice.
Geographies: Americas (Ecuador).
Who can apply: Civil society organizations registered on the UN Partner Portal (national and international NGOs and community-based organizations). Applicants may apply to one or both programmatic components, and only for the territories (Esmeraldas, Guayaquil) where they can demonstrate operational capacity;.
Funding amount: No fixed award amount is published on the call page.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 5, 16. Focus: child protection case management, capacity strengthening of local institutions, integrated protection services.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
Stand-by capacity for emergency response in Thailand, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). *New!*
The United Nations Children’s Fund invites Thai civil society organizations and foundations to join a standby partnership that keeps humanitarian response capacity ready before the next crisis hits. UNICEF Thailand wants partners who can move quickly when floods, disease outbreaks, or cross-border displacement disrupt children’s lives, holding trained teams and supply lines in reserve rather than assembling them mid-emergency. The work spans child protection, early childhood development, education, mental health and psychosocial support, and social protection, with partners expected to scale up at short notice. By selecting on sector expertise and deep local presence in equal measure, UNICEF signals that it values organizations rooted in affected communities over larger groups without local trust. The strongest fits are established Thai CSOs with proven emergency delivery and standing relationships in disaster-prone provinces.
Geographies: Eastern Asia, Oceania (Thailand).
Who can apply: Non-governmental and community-based civil society organizations (CSOs) and foundations operating in Thailand, able to maintain standby capacity and rapidly deploy humanitarian response teams in one or more of the identified programmatic areas.
Funding amount: Indicative Budget: - (not disclosed).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Humanitarian & Disaster Response; SDGs 1, 3, 4, 16. Focus: child protection in emergencies, disaster risk reduction, cash and voucher assistance.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Humanitarian Aid, Emergency Programming & DRR: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (8 new opportunities!)
32 funding opportunities - protection for people on the move is the center of gravity, and the UN is contracting for readiness rather than one-off projects.
Education, Human Rights & Inclusion
Sustainable School Connectivity through Connectivity Credits, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). *New!*
The United Nations Children’s Fund is seeking implementing partners for Sustainable School Connectivity through Connectivity Credits, which funds lasting internet access for schools across fourteen countries. UNICEF is trying to fix a common failure, where schools go dark once initial connection funding ends, by paying for verified connectivity as an outcome rather than subsidizing infrastructure. It wants partners who can select and manage local internet providers, run the credits verification system, and build a market where providers are rewarded for keeping schools online. The call splits into connectivity delivery and credits management, open to applicants individually or as a consortium, signaling that UNICEF is testing which delivery model scales. The strongest fits are digital inclusion nonprofits, foundations, and civil society organizations with school connectivity experience and in-country reach.
Geographies: Africa, Caribbean, Central America, Central Asia, Oceania, South America.
Who can apply: UNICEF seeks expressions of interest from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Foundations, Academic Institutions, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Government Entities, State-Owned Entities, Non-Profit Organizations, and other eligible programme partners with relevant experien…
Funding amount: Indicative budget not disclosed (UN Partner Portal norm; Section 7 field blank by design); partners negotiate funding post-selection within standard UNICEF cost categories under a Programme Cooperation Agreement.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 9, 10, 17. Focus: school internet connectivity, connectivity credits, digital divide.
Deadline: August 7, 2026.
Earlybird Vision Lab - Cohort 8, Earlybird Venture Capital. *New!*
Earlybird Vision Lab is Germany’s first venture capital incubator and impact fund for pre-seed startups led by founders with migration backgrounds, now recruiting its eighth cohort. Earlybird, a pan-European technology investor, built the program with corporate partners to widen who gets to build companies in Germany, where language, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers keep many capable immigrant founders from early capital. Over six months it pairs an early investment with mentoring, workshops, and access to an investor network, closing with a demo day for the founder community. Funding these teams through a convertible instrument signals that Earlybird treats them as investable companies with follow-on potential, not recipients of charity. The strongest fits are Germany-based, migrant-founded teams with a working product and early market traction.
Geographies: Europe, Western Europe (Germany).
Who can apply: Highly motivated pre-seed founding teams based in Germany with at least one first-generation migrant founder, addressing large (multi-billion euro) markets, with a distinctive MVP with clear USP and defensibility, early indication of product-market fit and a sales pipeline, and a healthy business model.
Funding amount: EUR 25,000 (convertible loan).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 8, 10. Focus: migrant founders, pre-seed investment, startup incubator.
Deadline: August 15, 2026.
GovTech Innovation Challenge 2026: Public Audit (Morocco IGF), World Bank. *New!*
The World Bank opens its GovTech Innovation Challenge for Morocco’s General Inspectorate of Finance, inviting technology companies to build digital tools for public audit. The organizers want proof that private innovation can solve real operational problems inside a state oversight body, focusing on smarter audit programming and public procurement review. They back solutions that respect the legal and data sovereignty rules governing public institutions, with multilingual support for French and Arabic and on-premise deployment. Selected teams work alongside inspectorate staff for three months to develop a proof of concept, then present at a joint bootcamp in Switzerland and Morocco, signaling that the funders value institutional fit over polished pitches. The strongest fits are startups, scale-ups, and SMEs with govtech or public audit expertise ready to co-develop with government.
Geographies: Morocco.
Who can apply: Open to international technology companies worldwide: startups, scale-ups, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Eligible companies must demonstrate relevant expertise (public finance/audit, AI/data, govtech) and commit to active participation throughout the program. Companies may apply to one or both challenges.
Funding amount: No cash award; all travel and participation costs covered for selected teams.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs 9, 16. Focus: public audit modernization, procurement integrity, risk-based auditing.
Deadline: August 21, 2026.
The Imagine Award, Promise Venture Studio. *New!*
Promise Venture Studio created the Imagine Award through its Promise Fund to back community-rooted leaders who carry firsthand knowledge of the young children and families they serve. The fund reads early childhood as a field starved of early-stage, flexible capital, and it directs unrestricted dollars plus a six-month cohort experience toward founders still at the idea stage. What Promise Venture Studio wants to grow is not a finished program but a tested one, so recipients run a real pilot, gather evidence, and sharpen an impact and business model alongside peers. The trust-based reporting and light milestones signal that the fund treats founders as partners rather than grantees to police. The strongest fits are proximate, equity-driven innovators in the United States ready to pilot within six months.
Geographies: United States.
Who can apply: Community-rooted early childhood leaders based in and primarily serving children and families in the United States, deeply connected to the communities affected by their work, who are self-motivated creative problem solvers with the expertise and capacity to pursue the work and are prepared to execute a pilot within si…
Funding amount: $20,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 10. Focus: early childhood, children ages 0 to 5, caregivers and families.
Deadline: August 28, 2026.
Grants for Technical and Digital Scaling of the Worker-Led Monitoring System (WLMS Lot 4), Christliche Initiative Romero e.V. (CIR). *New!*
Christliche Initiative Romero, a German civil society organization, is opening its Worker-Led Monitoring System call under Lot 4, which funds the technical and digital scaling of tools that let workers report labor rights abuses safely. The money flows from a European Union project on forced-labor-free supply chains, and Romero is directing it toward the infrastructure behind accountability rather than one-off campaigns: secure data systems, case management platforms, and open-source reporting tools built on Uwazi, Tella, or comparable approved solutions. The requirement that projects extend existing open-source systems signals that Romero wants durable, shared infrastructure workers can trust, not proprietary pilots. The strongest fits are non-profit technical teams, digital rights groups, and labor rights organizations that can harden and grow worker-led monitoring across global garment supply chains.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Eligible non-profit organisations with the technical capacity to develop and scale secure open-source worker-led monitoring tools, including technical and digital rights organisations, research institutes, labour rights organisations, civil society organisations, trade unions and worker organisations.
Funding amount: Up to EUR 60,000 per project.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs 8, 12, 16. Focus: worker rights, supply chain due diligence, open-source technology.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Strengthening Civil Society Programme: Using Legal Tools to Hold Corporations to Account (Migration Focus), The Baring Foundation. *New!*
The Baring Foundation has opened the first funding round under its Strengthening Civil Society program’s new corporate accountability focus, backing UK civil society organizations that use legal tools to hold corporations to account for harms affecting migrant communities. The foundation is building a field, not a caseload: it pairs grants with commissioned research, convening, and its own influence, and it wants legal action that ripples outward into policy, regulation, and public norms rather than casework for individuals. The application design rewards organizations that can name the discrimination they are challenging, defend their choice of legal route, and manage risk openly, signaling comfort with contested litigation. The strongest fits are small UK not-for-profits, corporate accountability groups or migrants’ rights organizations, with a proven record of using the law for social change.
Geographies: Europe (United Kingdom).
Who can apply: UK legally registered not-for-profit entities (preferably charities) with a demonstrable history of using legal tools to address discrimination and further social change.
Funding amount: Grants of £150,000 over three years; applications for £50,000 over 18 months also considered for exploratory-phase projects.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs 10, 16. Focus: corporate harm, legal empowerment, human rights based approaches.
Deadline: September 7, 2026.
RIS Education Open Call 2027, EIT Urban Mobility. *New!*
EIT Urban Mobility, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s mobility community, opens its RIS Education Open Call 2027 to fund capacity building in innovation and entrepreneurship across the Regional Innovation Scheme countries. The community wants education that carries beyond a course, so it backs training activities, summer and winter schools, and efforts to scale local initiatives into lasting programs. What it seeks to grow is transferable skill that turns into new ventures and stronger urban mobility talent in regions that have historically sat outside the innovation core. Opening the call to universities, cities, small companies, and startups, whether alone or in consortia, signals that it values practical delivery over institutional pedigree. The strongest fits are organizations in RIS countries with a track record of running capacity-building work in mobility.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Open to all types of legal entities established in EU member states or in third countries associated with Horizon Europe, including universities, research organisations, SMEs, start-ups and cities, whether or not they are EIT Urban Mobility partners at submission.
Funding amount: Total indicative EIT funding approximately EUR 2,600,000. Per-project maximum EIT funding: RISE1 and RISE2 EUR 300,000; RISE3 EUR 180,000 (EUR 90,000 per edition); RISE4 EUR 140,000; RISE5 EUR 70,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education. Focus: capacity building, entrepreneurship education, summer and winter schools.
Deadline: September 8, 2026.
Inclusive Public Transportation Challenge, Asian Development Bank (ADB). *New!*
The Asian Development Bank runs its Inclusive Public Transportation Challenge to fund and pilot navigation technologies that help blind and visually impaired passengers move through metro, rail, regional rapid transit, and bus systems in India. ADB is putting money toward field-tested tools that deliver real time, hands free orientation and carry a traveler from station entry to final destination, moving past incremental audio and signage upgrades. It wants solutions proven in live transit settings, with evidence strong enough to scale across cities in Asia and the Pacific. Requiring a co-financing contribution and reserving eligibility for legally autonomous organizations signals that ADB is backing teams ready to operate at pilot scale, not concept stage. The strongest fits are for-profit ventures, nonprofits, research institutions, and government-owned enterprises building accessible mobility technology.
Geographies: Southern Asia (India).
Who can apply: For-profit entities, not-for-profit organizations, civil society organizations, research institutions, and government-owned enterprises that are legally and financially autonomous. Individuals are not eligible, and all team members must be at least 18 years of age.
Funding amount: Up to USD 450,000 per pilot project (10% co-financing required).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 10, 11. Focus: disability accessibility, assistive navigation, visually impaired mobility.
Deadline: September 15, 2026.
Education, Human Rights & Inclusion: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (36 new opportunities!)
86 funding opportunities - Cross-border partnerships have become soft power, AI shows up on both sides of state power, and inclusion is being written straight into who can apply.
Innovation, Research & Smart Cities
Building the Economics of Open Transaction Networks (OTNs) - Call for Research Teams, Global Development Network (GDN). *New!*
The Global Development Network, with support from the Gates Foundation, opens a call for research teams across low and middle income countries to study the economics of open transaction networks. GDN wants rigorous empirical evidence on how these interoperable digital ecosystems change who participates in markets, what small and informal sellers earn, and how prices and competition shift. The program favors studies of Beckn Protocol deployments in Brazil, India, and Kenya, signaling that GDN sees real world implementations, not theory, as the place to test claims about digital public infrastructure. Selected teams join a research network with mentoring from senior economists. The strongest fits are LMIC based universities, think tanks, and policy research centers with applied microeconomics depth and access to platform data.
Geographies: Brazil, India, Kenya.
Who can apply: Research teams affiliated with universities, think tanks, policy research centres, non-profit organisations, research institutions, or research consortia, all based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Funding amount: USD 50,000 per research team; six research grants.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Economic Development & Livelihoods; SDGs 8, 9, 10. Focus: open transaction networks, beckn protocol, digital public infrastructure.
Deadline: August 21, 2026.
Google for Startups Accelerator: Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, Google. *New!*
Google for Startups Accelerator: Middle East, North Africa and Turkey opens its latest cohort to seed to Series A companies across the region that build deeply technical products, with a stated preference for machine learning and AI at the core. Google runs the ten-week hybrid program to pair founders with its engineers and a global mentor network, working through the specific technical challenges that keep a promising startup from scaling. The accelerator takes no equity and charges no fee, signaling that Google is investing in regional ecosystem depth and future cloud customers rather than ownership stakes. Accepted teams receive product and company strategy support, hands-on technical partnership, early access to Google AI tools, and cloud credits. The strongest fits are technical founders with early traction and a defensible, scalable model.
Geographies: Northern Africa, Western Asia.
Who can apply: Startups demonstrating traction, ideally between Seed and Series A stage, based in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region. Applicants should be building a scalable product or service with a significant total addressable market and a defensible growth model, be deeply technical (preferably leveraging technologi…
Funding amount: Equity-free; no cash grant or fee. Selected startups eligible for Google for Startups Cloud Program with up to $350,000 in Google Cloud and Firebase credits (subject to terms).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Innovation, Science & Technology; SDGs 8, 9. Focus: startup accelerator, deep tech, ai/ml startups.
Deadline: August 31, 2026.
Pathways to Enable Secure Open-Source Ecosystems (PESOSE), U.S. National Science Foundation. *New!*
The U.S. National Science Foundation opens Pathways to Enable Secure Open-Source Ecosystems, a program that funds the work of turning promising open-source research products into durable, well-governed technology ecosystems. NSF wants to move strong open-source software, hardware, machine learning models, and data platforms out of the lab and into managing organizations that can sustain them across academia, industry, and government. The three tracks let teams scope a new ecosystem, build and expand an existing one, or harden the security and privacy of a tool already in wide use, signaling that NSF treats governance and resilience as seriously as the underlying code. The strongest fits are research teams whose open-source tools already show real adoption and now need a path to secure, sustainable stewardship.
Geographies: Northern America (United States).
Who can apply: U.S. institutions of higher education and non-profit, non-academic organizations (e.g., independent research institutions) eligible under the NSF PAPPG. Teams are typically multidisciplinary, spanning multiple NSF directorates. See solicitation NSF 26-506 for full eligibility, including any track-specific constraints.
Funding amount: Track 1: maximum $300,000 per award (~30 awards); Track 2: maximum $1,500,000 per award (~10 awards); Track 3: maximum $1,500,000 per award (~10 awards); ~$40M program budget, 40-60 awards.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Innovation, Science & Technology. Focus: secure open-source ecosystems, software sustainability, cybersecurity.
Deadline: September 1, 2026.
Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation 2027, Royal Academy of Engineering. *New!*
The Royal Academy of Engineering runs the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation on the belief that homegrown engineering can solve the continent’s most pressing development challenges. It backs entrepreneurs who already have a working prototype or minimum viable product in early commercialization, pairing prize funding with an eight-month program of intensive business support, mentoring, funded training, and access to a global network. What the Academy is buying is commercial traction, not ideas: it wants ventures that have moved past the concept stage into real market progress. Opening the prize to engineers and non-engineers alike, provided they are citizens of and based in sub-Saharan Africa, signals that proximity to the problem matters more than formal credentials. The strongest fits are early-stage African ventures with a scalable product and genuine commercial viability.
Geographies: Africa.
Who can apply: Citizens of sub-Saharan African countries ordinarily based in sub-Saharan Africa, aged 18 or over, who have developed an engineering-based innovation in the early stages of commercialization. Both engineers and non-engineers are welcome.
Funding amount: Prize pot of £85,000 available, with prizes ranging from GBP £5,000 - £50,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Innovation, Science & Technology.
Deadline: September 8, 2026.
Researcher Challenges Grants 2026, British Council. *New!*
The British Council runs its Researcher Challenges Grants under the Going Global Partnerships program to build lasting research ties between UK institutions and partners in Egypt, Brazil, Morocco, and Palestine. The funder uses these grants to help early-career researchers work across borders on shared global challenges, from climate change and sustainable energy to public health and food security. What the British Council seeks to back is not a single study but a durable partnership that outlasts one project. The design signals this intent, pairing established researchers as mentors with early-career participants and funding workshops and challenge prizes rather than one-off outputs. The strongest fits are UK universities and non-profit research bodies ready to co-lead with an overseas institution and invest in the next generation of researchers.
Geographies: Americas, Northern Africa, Western Asia (United Kingdom, Egypt, Brazil, Morocco, Palestine).
Who can apply: Higher education institutions and not-for-profit research institutions, establishments and organisations in the UK, partnering with an eligible institution in Egypt, Brazil, Morocco, or Palestine.
Funding amount: £40,000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Innovation, Science & Technology; SDGs 2, 3, 7, 13, 17. Focus: international research partnerships, early-career researcher development, research capacity building.
Deadline: September 17, 2026.
FutureProofTextiles Open Call - Twin Transition Support for Textile SMEs (1st Round), FutureProofTextiles (Single Market Programme). *New!*
FutureProofTextiles, a Single Market Programme initiative backed by the European Commission, runs an open call funding textile SMEs to carry out green transition or digital innovation projects. The program treats the twin transition as a survival question for smaller manufacturers, using lump-sum grants plus training, mentoring, and network access to help companies adopt circular practices, cut waste, and modernize production. It seeks resilient, competitive firms that can sustain change beyond a single pilot, backing work that reshapes how textiles are made and discarded. Restricting eligibility to individual SMEs, excluding clusters and consortia, and requiring a working technology base signals that the funder wants operators ready to implement, not intermediaries. The strongest fits are established textile value chain SMEs with a concrete sustainability or digitalization project and staff to deliver it.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Individual SMEs (per European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC) legally established in a country participating in the Single Market Programme, operating in the textile value chain or in a complementary sector directly contributing to it.
Funding amount: EUR 50,000 lump-sum grant per SME (total FSTP envelope EUR 2,000,000).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Economic Development & Livelihoods; SDGs 8, 9, 12. Focus: twin transition, textile value chain, circular economy.
Deadline: September 18, 2026.
Call to Host World Habitat Day and World Cities Day 2027, UN-Habitat. *New!*
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme invites countries to put themselves forward to host the 2027 global observances of World Habitat Day and World Cities Day, the anchor events of Urban October. UN-Habitat uses these observances to concentrate international attention on urbanization, and it wants host governments that can turn that spotlight into momentum for their own housing and settlement agendas. The 2027 themes center on transforming informal settlements and slums and on financing adequate housing, so the program seeks hosts ready to showcase real progress on those fronts, not ceremony alone. Requiring a substantial national contribution and in-kind support signals that UN-Habitat expects committed partners with logistical capacity. The strongest fits are governments with demonstrated urban leadership and the standing to convene high-level global participation.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: National governments interested in hosting the 2027 global observances of World Habitat Day and/or World Cities Day. Proposals should demonstrate experience hosting international events, provide examples of sustainable urbanization initiatives, outline proposed national activities linked to the observances, and confirm…
Funding amount: Host countries provide a minimum financial contribution of USD 500,000 to host one global observance or USD 1 million to host both, in addition to in-kind support (venue facilities, logistics, interpretation, security and technical services).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Infrastructure & Urban Development; SDGs 11. Focus: world habitat day, world cities day, urban october.
Deadline: September 30, 2026.
Co-create NEB Open Call 2027 (Co-creation of Public Space Through Citizen Engagement), EIT Community New European Bauhaus. *New!*
The EIT Community New European Bauhaus runs its Co-create open call to fund partnerships that redesign neighborhood public spaces, and it wants communities and their local governments working side by side. The initiative ties the European Green Deal to everyday places, so it backs projects that make streets, squares, and shared ground more sustainable, inclusive, and pleasant to inhabit. What it seeks is lasting transformation of a place, not a one-off event, which is why it requires a consortium anchored by a city or region and asks every proposal to carry the sustainability, inclusion, and aesthetics values through to delivery. Requiring a co-funding share signals that it wants partners with real local stake. The strongest fits are municipality-anchored consortia joining NGOs, universities, and community groups to reshape a neighborhood.
Geographies: Europe.
Who can apply: Consortia of two to four partners, at least one of which must be a city, region, or an entity affiliated with a city or region located in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe associated country.
Funding amount: Grant: up to EUR 49,300; Co-funding: EUR 8,700; Total project budget: EUR 58,000 (per consortium/project).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Infrastructure & Urban Development. Focus: new european bauhaus, public space, citizen engagement.
Deadline: September 30, 2026.
Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellows Program 2027, Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society (MIDAS), University of Michigan. *New!*
The Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society, with backing from Schmidt Sciences, runs the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science African Faculty Fellows Program to bring early- and mid-career African faculty into a two-year residency-and-return arc: a year embedded at the University of Michigan building AI methods into their science, then a year back home turning that training into local capacity. The program pairs each fellow with a Michigan host for a jointly funded project and adds a pilot grant on return, signaling that it wants durable research ecosystems in Africa, not visiting scholars. The strongest fits are African university scientists in engineering, earth, physical, or basic biological research who are ready to adopt AI methods and teach them onward.
Geographies: Africa.
Who can apply: Early- and mid-career researchers holding either a primary faculty appointment at a university in Africa or a faculty-equivalent research role at an African research organization.
Funding amount: annual stipend of $35,000; pilot grant award of $50,000 upon return to Africa; $40,000 to each U-M faculty host for a joint research project.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Innovation, Science & Technology; SDGs 4, 9, 17. Focus: artificial intelligence, machine learning, scientific research.
Deadline: October 5, 2026.
Innovation, Research & Smart Cities: August 2026 Funding Opportunities (24 new opportunities)
75 funding opportunities - Europe is buying its strategic autonomy one consortium at a time, and AI is being funded as scientific infrastructure with a safety mandate attached.
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