Currently 10 active tech and infrastructure grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in Remote (work-from-anywhere). Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
Subscribe: RSS feed · Calendar (.ics)
ONX Seeds 2026 is a four-month incubation and seed funding program run by Onassis ONX, the Onassis Foundation's platform for art and advanced technologies, hosted in Athens in a hybrid format under the theme Soft Circuits for Hard Times. It invites emerging artists, creative technologists, designers, game makers, performers, sound and visual artists and makers (individuals, groups and collectives, Greek and international) to develop early-stage prototypes that make the digital tangible: interactive objects, wearable or embedded systems, screen-based worlds, participatory environments, games, rituals, sonic works, moving images and hybrid analogue-digital forms. Proposals should be realistic in scope and result in an exhibitable prototype. SUPPORT: EUR 1,000 to 5,000 seed funding per project, weekly technical mentoring plus curatorial and business mentoring and online masterclasses, studio and equipment access at Onassis Ready for Athens-based teams (remote participation for everyone else), presentation at ONX Exhibition Athens (17 to 21 March 2027) with travel, accommodation and artwork transport covered for non-Athens participants, and connections to the ONX network in Athens, New York and beyond. HOW TO APPLY: via the Onassis open calls portal, with project summary, concept, visitor experience, technical requirements, production plan and bio, plus a mood board or project deck, portfolio and development budget as single PDFs; technical documentation and links to demos or repositories optional. DEADLINE: 26 October 2026.
A bias bounty from Zindi, Humane Intelligence, Radiant Earth, and the Heising-Simons Foundation: measure coverage gaps in Overture Maps across US Census tracts by comparing it against Census TIGER/Line Roads, Microsoft US Building Footprints, USGS National Map critical facilities, and Census County Business Patterns. Submissions are automatically evaluated with a Bias Score assessing equity metrics across demographic and climate-vulnerability strata, surfacing whose neighbourhoods open map data underserves. PRIZES: 1st USD 4,500, 2nd USD 2,500, 3rd USD 1,500, Best Bias Discovery USD 1,000, Best Documentation USD 500 (USD 10,000 total), plus 10,000 Zindi points. ELIGIBILITY: open to all, teams of up to 4. HOW TO ENTER: create a Zindi account, download the sample submission files, compute coverage-gap scores per tract GEOID, and upload a CSV; 10 submissions per day, 300 total. Free to enter. DEADLINE: 31 October 2026.
Foresight Institute's AI for Science and Safety Nodes request for proposals funds open, AI-first projects across three calls: I. Local Compute (compute that individuals and communities physically own and control), II. Coordination and Accountability (supercollaboration and decentralised alignment, human empowerment, and AI insurance and open governance: multi-agent oversight and verification, tools for collective deliberation, decision rules for when human control adds value, and independent risk assessment or insurance mechanisms for frontier labs), and III. AI-first Science (automated nanotechnology, whole-brain emulation, frontier bio). Grantees can also get workspace in the San Francisco or Berlin AI Nodes (a community xNode runs in Cape Town) and private compute. All funded code, data and outputs must be open-sourced. Projects are judged on fit with the focus area, impact on reducing existential risk from AI, feasibility within 1 to 3 years, AI-first working methods, ability to execute, and high-risk, high-reward potential. ELIGIBILITY: individuals, teams and organisations worldwide; nonprofits and for-profits welcome (for-profits must justify the need for grant funding). Priority goes to applicants who want to work in person at one of the Nodes, but it is not required. Review takes about three months; applications can opt in to sharing with Lightcone Commons. DEADLINE: 31 October 2026, 23:59 PDT.
Bellingcat, the open source investigations collective, is hiring a contractor AI engineer to build agentic systems that support its investigators. (Listed on Grant Desk as an exception to the no-jobs rule: a remote, paid, public-interest AI contract.) THE ROLE: build, test, deploy and monitor multi-agent workflows for open source investigations; develop agentic pipelines with human oversight, feedback loops and evaluation metrics; architect and maintain cloud infrastructure for hosting LLM harnesses and monitoring agents using token-as-a-service providers; develop MCP servers and data bridges connecting agents to open source research tools and databases; and create evaluation frameworks for the performance and reasoning of agentic pipelines. WHAT YOU GET: an annual fee of USD 80,000 to 93,000 for full-time work (part-time 20 hours/week also possible), on an initial 12-month contract, working remotely with some flexibility to work from other countries for a limited number of weeks per year. ELIGIBILITY: hands-on full-stack development experience including infrastructure maintenance and server-side data workflows; experience with agentic AI workflows and open-source harnesses; experience with human-in-the-loop design (approval checks, feedback loops); a collaborative record of working with non-technical colleagues on public interest technology; English proficiency; and a time zone overlapping with Europe. Experience with mission-driven organisations or open source / public interest tech is a plus. APPLICATION: via Google Form; Bellingcat asks that applications not be AI-generated (AI for grammar checks is fine). Review is rolling from 21 October and interviews may start before the close. DEADLINE: 8 November 2026.
The Mozilla Foundation Incubator's next cohort funds seven Human-Scale AI projects: working AI technologies that are small (small models, less compute, able to run locally or on low-power devices), intentional (users and communities get insight into and control over their data, and systems can be configured, forked or community-governed) and tailored (fit-for-purpose for a specific community, context or problem, with particular interest in resource-constrained regions, people with disabilities and other underserved groups). Projects must already be deployed with the people they serve, even at pilot scale, and show early product-community fit. Not wanted: concepts without working technology, standalone governance or policy work, generic chatbots, or products whose core depends on a frontier model or a slimmed-down version of one. The cohort runs for 12 months from April 2027 with coaching, a Mozilla programme officer, network access and a showcase at the Mozilla Festival; required sessions are about one or two hour-long virtual meetings a month, and teams must work in the open. ELIGIBILITY: worldwide; you do not need to be a nonprofit but the project must have a charitable purpose and you must be legally able to receive Mozilla Foundation grant funds. Applications in English (translation tools welcome). Multi-stage process: an initial project proposal, then a full application for a shortlist. Info session 12 November 2026, 17:00 UTC. DEADLINE: Friday 20 November 2026, 11:59PM PST (UTC-8).
The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri funds people and teams to build and launch a tool, workflow or product that helps newsrooms, in three tracks: Individual (USD 75,000), Institutional (USD 75,000, paid to a host organisation or the fellow) and Emerging Technology (USD 100,000, where AI or another new technology must be essential to the solution). The output must be a free, open-source resource usable by US journalists; tools limited to one city or state are unlikely to be funded. The fellowship is remote and runs for eight months from 28 June 2027 with an in-person kickoff at RJI and a couple of paid visits. ELIGIBILITY: anyone, anywhere; no age, background or journalism credential required. Applications open 2 November 2026 on Submittable; a shortlist is invited in early to mid February 2027 to submit a fuller application, with finalist interviews 5 to 23 April 2027. DEADLINE: 8 January 2027 (first round; no time zone stated, RJI is on US Central time).
The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) Research Fellowship supports curious, passionate mid-career researchers and practitioners to explore frontier questions on digital public infrastructure (DPI) and data governance. Fellows bring their own knowledge and research agenda while contributing to DIAL's core thematic priorities: creating more value for more people from data; understanding how digital systems and services impact people, including and especially the most marginalised; and accelerating the adoption of data-sharing and governance practices that fuel innovation and empower people. SUPPORT: a USD 5,000 stipend for research completed over 6-8 months, plus mentorship from DIAL staff and industry experts, access to DIAL's network and resources, collaboration with partner organisations, and support amplifying the work. Each fellow produces two preliminary pieces and one final, more extensive output (research papers or reports, policy briefs, expert-comment series, etc.). ELIGIBILITY: professionals from academia, the private sector, and civil society, typically with 8-15 years of experience in digital development, policy, or research; demonstrated work at the intersection of technology and society (including DPI and data governance); a track record of high-quality writing, research, or policy briefs; experience working in or with global majority countries; and strong analytical and communication skills. TO APPLY (rolling basis): submit a CV or resume, a writing sample or portfolio, and a research proposal. Questions: fellows@dial.global. Apply via https://dial.global/apply-to-our-fellows-program/.
Commissioned long-form writing at the intersection of design, technology, art and culture. Editorial themes: designing with AI as cultural and infrastructural system; responsive and adaptive materials; politics of platforms and creative-infrastructure governance; post-digital hybrid making; designing for collapse and continuity; creative research as practice. In-depth pieces only, no press releases or promotional copy.
Rest of World is in the third year of its Labor x Tech program, underwritten by the Ford Foundation, commissioning reported stories on the changing nature of work at a moment of upheaval: AI tools and robotics reshaping professions at every rung of society, from self-driving cars replacing drivers to humanoid robots working alongside nurses; lay-offs across the tech industry; and the gig work model continuing to reshape traditional employment. The programme's premise is that this moment needs documenting now, in stories that help prepare society for what comes next. WHAT THEY COMMISSION: reported stories of 800 to 1,000 words from around the world on this beat, at a fee of USD 1,000 per story. WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR, based on previous years: how new technology is transforming existing industries in unique ways and creating unexpected new pockets of employment; how technology is leading to significant job gain, job loss, and government responses to those trends; whether large demographic shifts are following the adoption of new technology or the arrival of new industries; how workplace technology is changing workplace dynamics; how new industries and tools are changing workers' incomes; and the expansion of the gig work model alongside the threats of automation. EXAMPLES of the kind of story they hope to commission, all previously published by Rest of World: workers in Chinese data factories teaching humanoid robots boring tasks; entry-level tech workers describing the AI-fuelled jobpocalypse; Microsoft and Google claiming their data centres create thousands of jobs while their permit filings say otherwise; AI helping judges close cases quickly and lawyers open them quickly; tech workers fuelling a mini baby boom in Taiwan's Silicon Valley; Dubai's robotaxi ambitions coming for human drivers; and the job brokers who run the lives of the migrant workers staffing Taiwan's chip plants. ELIGIBILITY NOTE: the programme is unable to commission reporting in India or from writers based in India for this series. HOW TO PITCH: send 2 to 3 paragraphs laying out the nutgraf of the proposal and explaining how the pitch fits the editorial mission of the programme. Indicate what sources will be used, whether any pre-reporting has been completed, what reporting has already been done on the topic at other outlets, and what the story contributes to the discourse. Pitches go to laborxtech@restofworld.org. Pitching is open on a rolling basis; no closing date is stated.
Sequoia's Open Source Fellowship pays developers to work full time on open-source software without starting a company. WHO: any developer working on an open-source project, anywhere in the world; selection favours existing projects with real-world adoption (not just GitHub stars), including web frameworks, tooling and infrastructure. Fellows should plan significant improvements or investments in the project or support its expansion, and keep full ownership of all code written before, during and after the fellowship. WHAT YOU GET: a stipend sized to cover reasonable living expenses for 6 to 12 months, with no equity or obligations; roughly 2 to 3 fellows a year. APPLICATION: a brief questionnaire on the fellowship page, reviewed on a rolling basis; Sequoia contacts applicants whose projects are a good fit. DEADLINE: rolling.