Currently 7 active paid grants, fellowships and residencies taking place in India, across AI, arts, film, journalism, research, tech and cross-disciplinary practice. Many are open to applicants of any nationality; check each entry for residency and citizenship requirements. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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The third round of Project Tech4Dev's AI Cohort, a hands-on implementation programme for NGOs designing, building and deploying responsible AI solutions inside their own programmes. Cohort 2.0 worked with seven NGOs across education, civic engagement, youth development and nonprofit technology, who built and piloted AI teaching assistants, volunteer coaches, mentoring tools and decision-support systems; the organisers' stated lesson was that adoption turns on understanding user needs, testing rapidly, measuring impact and building responsibly rather than on the technology itself. Cohort 3.0 is aimed at organisations ready to move past exploration into solutions that can be deployed in real-world settings. STRUCTURE (three sprints over roughly six months): Discovery Sprint (months 1 to 2) covering problem discovery, use-case prioritisation, data-readiness assessment, user research and solution design; Build Sprint (months 2 to 5) covering prototype development, implementation sprints, user testing, mentorship and responsible AI evaluations; and Activation Sprint (month 6) covering pilot deployment, impact assessment, operationalisation planning and a final showcase with peers and ecosystem partners. SELECTION CRITERIA: NGOs must show some in-house technical or data capability, ideally a dedicated person who can anchor the work (not necessarily an AI expert, but able to manage workflows, communicate operational requirements and work with mentors and experts); must commit one person's full bandwidth for the whole programme, including aligning leadership, adapting operations and making room to test, monitor and refine; and preference goes to problems involving multi-modal input, especially Indic languages, and to use cases built on LLMs. Applications are open to nonprofits across sectors, with priority to climate-focused organisations whose AI use cases could improve programme delivery, decision-making or community outcomes. Apply via the Google Form linked from the announcement before 10 August 2026.
IFA's Arts Research Programme funds research into forms of knowing and thinking rooted in creative, scholarly or cultural practice. It explicitly welcomes experimental and self-reflexive methodologies, practice-based inquiry, interdisciplinary dialogue, community engagement, translation studies and work on marginalised narratives, with a shareable public outcome expected. Open to artists, scholars, curators, translators, educators and practitioner-researchers. ELIGIBILITY IS RESTRICTED: Indian nationals only, and PIO and OCI card holders are explicitly excluded; any collaborators must also be Indian nationals. Applicants need a PAN card and valid ID. PROCESS NOTE: this is a two-stage email application, not a web form. Applicants were expected to discuss the project concept with the Programme Officer (harshita@indiaifa.org) by 11 July 2026, with the final proposal, CV and budget breakdown emailed by 10 August 2026 at 23:59 IST, in an email no larger than 25 MB. Proposals may be written in any Indian language, including English.
A one-year award enabling an emerging Indian visual artist to pursue independent practice, with a stipulation to attend a recognised art residency programme in India for four weeks during the year. ELIGIBILITY IS RESTRICTED: Indian citizens currently living in India, born on or after 1 January 1996, who are either recent graduates, postgraduates or final-year students of a leading Indian visual arts institute, or artists without those formal credentials but with a record of exhibition participation. First-year MA students are not eligible. Awardees submit progress reports at six months and on completion, plus documentation of the residency. Applications close 15 August 2026 at 23:59 IST via Submittable. Shortlisting is expected in late October 2026 with interviews in early November.
A skill-enhancement award for emerging Indian theatre practitioners, supporting participation in recognised training workshops, residencies and similar programmes rather than the production of a specific work. ELIGIBILITY IS RESTRICTED: Indian citizens born after 1 January 1991, with preference given to holders of a theatre degree from a leading Indian institution. Recipients report at the six-month mark and on completion. Applications close 15 August 2026 at 23:59 IST via Submittable. The foundation runs several other awards on adjacent deadlines, including the Inlaks-Attakkalari Dance Studentship (30 August 2026) and a two-month Inlaks Residency at the International Center of Photography in the USA for emerging Indian photographic practitioners (31 August 2026).
Water Bodies & Ecology 2026 is a 40-day multidisciplinary initiative from the Dot Line Space Art Foundation in Mumbai, bringing artists, researchers, collectives and communities together across research activities, installations and exhibitions at two venues. The premise is artistic engagement with water, ecology, climate, memory and environmental consciousness, and the programme is explicitly after research-based and site-responsive approaches rather than finished gallery objects, aiming for dialogue between contemporary practice and ecological concerns. WHO CAN APPLY: individual artists, artist groups, interdisciplinary practitioners, community-based initiatives, and collectives and collaborative practices, working across all mediums and disciplines. WHAT IS OFFERED: selected artists receive grants towards travel and production expenses. Be aware that the published call does not give amounts, does not mention an artist fee, and does not mention accommodation, so confirm the terms with the foundation (info@dotlinespace.co.in) before committing to travel. Applications go through a Google Form linked from the project page. ABOUT THE HOST: Dot Line Space was co-founded in 2015 by Gourmoni Das, Piyush Bavalia and Shruti Bhosle, all graduates of Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai.
NOTE: this is a climate-and-democracy funder rather than an arts or technology programme; relevance to creative or tech practice depends on whether political leadership is a genuine driver of the proposed model. The Resilient Futures Call is a co-funded initiative by the Better Politics Fund, the European Climate Foundation, Naia Trust and the Vibe Fund supporting non-partisan initiatives working at the intersection of democratic political leadership and climate resilience globally. Total available funding is USD 700,000 across two streams: Ideation Grants (open call, this entry) and Incubation Grants (nomination only, up to USD 50,000, for approaches already proven beyond early testing; nominees are contacted directly and there is no way to apply). WHAT IS FUNDED, across three areas: (1) Pathways, helping climate scientists, advocates and affected communities work more effectively with political and governance decision-makers so that evidence and local knowledge shape policy and policy is carried through at every level of government, from town councils to national parliaments; (2) Leadership, programs integrating a critical climate lens into democratic leadership development, strengthening ethical communication, policy design, implementation and strategic coalition-building, including pipelines for leaders from underrepresented backgrounds; (3) Cross-Sector Leadership, backing leadership on energy, housing, transport, food, security, health and conservation, and helping reform political systems and institutions so leaders and new ideas in these areas can succeed. The funders want work where political leadership is a key driver of change, not a side effect. WHO CAN APPLY: organizations, networks, collectives or individuals anywhere eligible. No need to be a registered charity and no need to be based in a priority country, though it strengthens regional fit. ELIGIBILITY CHECK (all must be yes): the idea is new or early-stage (organization under 12 months old, or a new pilot from an older organization; established programs with a strong track record are not right for an Ideation Grant); it aligns with at least one of the three funding areas and with regional priorities; it is non-partisan (no parties, candidates or campaigns); the applicant is based in an eligible location. PRIORITY COUNTRIES: Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa); Asia (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand); Europe (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, UK); Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname); Pacific (Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu). CANNOT FUND, for legal and operational reasons, individuals and organizations in: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Burkina Faso, China, Cuba, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Georgia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar/Burma, Nicaragua, Niger, North Korea, Oman, Palestine (Gaza), Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, the United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson). NOT FUNDED: physical infrastructure such as solar panels or climate infrastructure where political leadership is not a driver of the model; research, accountability scorecards and policy-gap mapping (the funders support the leaders and institutions who act on evidence, not the generation of it); public awareness campaigns without a political leadership dimension; anything affiliated with a political party or candidate; corporate sustainability or ESG initiatives; outside-pressure advocacy campaigns that push governments on emissions targets without building new leadership capacity; citizens' assemblies or deliberation projects with no link to political leaders or institutions acting on the outcomes; transparency or open-data initiatives that do not feed into political or institutional decision-making; watchdog or investigative journalism without a direct link to strengthening political leadership or institutional response. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA: innovation (a genuinely new idea, method or audience); impact potential; strategic clarity (a credible plan connecting activities to the intended outcome); financial clarity; regional fit; leadership (motivation, experience and rootedness in local context). PROCESS: fill out the short application form before midnight CET on 4 September 2026. There is no second full proposal stage. Every application is acknowledged; all are screened and shortlisted, and a Grantmaking Council of eight regional experts across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Pacific reviews the shortlist and makes recommendations. Shortlisted applicants are asked for supporting documentation for due diligence, sometimes including a short call. Feedback is only given to shortlisted applicants; no reply by December 2026 means the application was unsuccessful. INFORMATION SESSION: online 17 August 2026, two sittings at 8:00 CET and 16:00 CET, registration on the call page. Questions: resilientfutures@betterpolitics.foundation.
The Sony Innovation Fund (now under Sony Ventures Corporation) is Sony's corporate venture capital arm, investing in early-stage (Seed, Series A and Series B) transformational-technology startups across business, entertainment and society, including entertainment, gaming, AI, robotics, fintech, climate and blockchain. Music, entertainment and AI startups fit within its thesis, though it is not a music-only fund. Typical checks are roughly USD 100,000 to USD 5 million, alongside mentorship and access to Sony's network and R&D. It is an equity investment, not a grant. Global, with offices in the US, London/EU, Tokyo, Bangalore and Israel. Startups engage on a rolling basis via the contact and inquiry form. No application fee.