Currently 32 active paid tech and infrastructure grants, fellowships and residencies. 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.
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Eurostars (part of the Eureka network, the Eurostars-3 programme co-funded by Horizon Europe) supports collaborative international R&D projects led by innovative SMEs. Each country funds its own participants, so amounts vary; for the Dutch share, RVO funds up to EUR 500,000 per project at a 50 percent reimbursement rate on eligible R&D costs. Projects require an international consortium of at least two independent organisations from at least two Eurostars countries, led by an innovative SME, with the SME budget at least 50 percent of the total and no single participant exceeding 70 percent. Projects must run no longer than 36 months and be civil (non-defence) in purpose. Call 11 opens 9 July 2026 and closes 10 September 2026, 14:00 CEST. No application fee. Submit via the Eureka project platform (myeurekaproject.org); Dutch national information at RVO.
Counterstructures is Mozilla Foundation's cultural R&D residency, in which creative technologists prototype alternatives to dominant tech systems: cultural artifacts, installations and tools that question and reframe them. Each edition operationalises the findings of a regional participatory assembly into thematic tracks; the Delhi edition, hosted by Khoj International Artists' Association, works from Mozilla's assemblies with G5A in Delhi and Mumbai and runs on two tracks. RETAINING CULTURAL AUTHORITY asks what happens when oral, embodied or community-held knowledge is converted into datasets and machine-readable forms, which cultural materials become visible to AI systems and which do not, and how communities can retain authority over what is digitised, interpreted, reused or deliberately kept private. REMEMBERING AND THINKING WITH MACHINES asks where thought resides when people think with machines, at what stage human judgment enters the system, and what cultural or professional knowledge is lost when judgment is standardised through automation. Proposals may respond to one or both tracks and can take many forms, but must critically counter the questions the tracks raise rather than simply illustrate them. WHAT RESIDENTS DO: prototype an artifact, installation, system, artwork or tool for public exhibition; take part in listening, reading, workshops and facilitated critique, testing ideas with peers and community members; write a 750-word report on the project's development and insights for the Counterstructures report and online archive; and present the work publicly. WHO IT IS FOR: creative technologists and multidisciplinary artists using technology as a medium for cultural inquiry, bringing critical perspectives and research-driven practice. Experience with AI can be early-stage or advanced, but SOME PROFICIENCY WITH CODING IS REQUIRED. ELIGIBILITY: this Delhi edition is open to Indian nationals only. Earlier editions ran with tiat in San Francisco (responding to Hollywood's 8 Rules for AI) and with Rhizome in New York, whose residents showed at the New Museum. APPLY through the Mozilla Foundation form at https://mozillafoundation.tfaforms.net/f/khojresidency; the guiding principles for the call are set out in the form. Deadline 13 September 2026.
One residency for an individual practitioner, a duo or a studio working at the intersection of sound and space, exploring architecture through spatial audio. THE PREMISE: architecture is traditionally conceived through form, structure, material and light, with sound treated as something to be controlled or optimised afterwards. This residency asks what happens if architecture begins with sound, shifting the question from how a space should sound to how sound can generate space. Spatial audio, virtual acoustics and immersive media now allow prototyping of responsive environments, impossible architectures and sonic spaces beyond physical constraints. RESEARCH QUESTIONS include how sound can become a first principle in architectural and spatial design, how the acoustic properties of space inform the creation and perception of spatial sound, and how artistic research can shape the future tools, interfaces and methods of spatial sound creation. NOT JUST ARTWORKS: they explicitly say they want new methods, insights and creative infrastructures too. Outcomes may include installations, spatial audio compositions, performances, audiovisual works, software prototypes, reusable methodologies or modular interfaces. Residents may collaborate with a 4DSOUND software developer to prototype new tools, and practitioners who already build their own software, hardware or creative technologies are encouraged to advance those as part of the residency. WHO: architects are the named invitees, with scenographers, spatial designers, installation artists, sound artists, composers and creative technologists also encouraged. Creative coding experience is welcome but not required. Lead researcher is Poul Holleman, co-founder and director of 4DSOUND. HARD ELIGIBILITY GATE: applicants must be based in the Netherlands AND registered as an artist with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK). This is not negotiable and rules out non-NL applicants. Futures of Listening is a Netherlands-based platform for spatial sound, immersive experience, performance and installation art, founded by FIBER Festival, 4DSOUND, Robin Koek and Art of Sound at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, supported by CIIIC and Stimuleringsfonds.
The MIT R&D Collaboration Projects scheme (MIT R&D-samenwerkingsprojecten, part of MKB Innovatiestimulering Topsectoren) funds joint R&D projects by Dutch SMEs within the national Top Sectors and Mission-driven Innovation policy. The grant covers 35 percent of eligible costs: small projects of EUR 50,000-200,000 and large projects of EUR 200,000-350,000 (with per-participant ranges of EUR 25,000-100,000 for small and EUR 25,000-175,000 for large). Eligible applicants are consortia of at least two collaborating SMEs, with no single participant carrying more than 70 percent of costs. The national RVO round runs 9 June to 15 September 2026 (closes 17:00) and is a ranked tender, not first-come-first-served; some provinces run separate regional MIT windows. No application fee. Apply via RVO.
Normsy, a project of Civic Health Project, runs a small methods incubator for new strategies to measure or estimate the impact of prosocial social-media interventions. Normsy identifies toxic posts (typically content attacking or violating civic norms) and offers real users a set of AI-generated prosocial comments to choose from and post; the open question is how to estimate the effect of those comments on content producers, other commenters and bystanders who consume content without interacting measurably. The current approach combines survey experiments (how active X users respond emotionally to threads with and without the intervention, and how it shifts agreement with and support for the original post) with paid X API platform data (classifying comments before and after an intervention, plus coarse engagement metrics that cost money each time they are recollected). WHAT THEY WANT: a systematic way to leverage available platform data and maximise the utility of the survey experiments. Example proposals include a strategy for measuring toxicity/prosociality and reach/visibility of a thread over time with a randomisation design generating a control group of threads, or an approach to benchmarking the prosocial potential of AI-generated comments through an iterative arena with human judges or a theory-backed LLM validation approach with human validation. The brief is explicit that methodological innovation, causal identification, scalable measurement frameworks and novel observational approaches matter far more than proposing new intervention types; proposals need not study Normsy exclusively but must explain how the evaluation design transfers to it. Ethics and IRB considerations are central and Normsy will collaborate with selected researchers on ethics review and implementation planning. Researchers retain publication independence and IP; the partnership is expected to produce data for an academic paper. SUBMIT: one zipped folder through the linked Google Form containing a 3-page proposal (design, work already done, work still needed to scale and implement), a budget document for the USD 20,000, a timeline with concrete deliverables inside 6 months, and short bios for all team members. Award notifications mid-October 2026. Questions to kylan@civichealthproject.org; informal and exploratory conversations welcome.
The British Open-ended Learning and Discovery (BOLD) Lab is a new UKRI-funded initiative establishing an AI research laboratory led from the University of Oxford, bringing more than 80 researchers from Oxford, UCL and Imperial College London under one vision. It carries an initial investment of around GBP 8 million with the potential for a further GBP 22 million extending the investment over six years, making it one of the UK's largest bets on fundamental AI research. The lab's remit is ambitious, high-risk work on the fundamental science of artificial intelligence, alongside training future leaders in the field. THE ROLE: up to 12 BOLD Fellows are being recruited across the three universities. Fellows are expected to operate with a high level of independence and responsibility, setting their own research direction, publishing at the highest level, and mentoring junior researchers and doctoral students. They also play a leading role in managing the lab and take responsibility for developing its strategic and scientific direction, with primary responsibility for a programme of independent funded research projects. The posting frames the draw as exceptional independence, direct collaboration with world-leading colleagues across the three institutions, access to substantial and rapidly growing compute, and real influence over the intellectual direction and culture of a major national lab. WHO SHOULD APPLY: senior researchers with an established, original research track record in AI or a closely related field, who are a recognised authority in their area. HOW TO APPLY: submit an online application with a covering letter or supporting statement, a CV, and details of two referees. Informal enquiries are welcomed beforehand to the BOLD Exec Team at boldexec-team@eng.ox.ac.uk. NOTE: this is a salaried fixed-term research post rather than a grant. Only applications received before midday on Tuesday 15 September 2026 can be considered.
Tech Policy Press is recruiting its 2027 fellowship cohort to pursue independent reporting and analysis on urgent questions at the intersection of technology and democracy. Since 2023 the programme has supported 25 fellows from 11 countries across three cohorts, writing on AI governance, tech regulation, digital rights and the entanglement of state and corporate power. WHO IT IS FOR: mid-career journalists, researchers, lawyers and public policy professionals with a strong background in a specific tech policy area, a particular geography, or technology's impact on democracy and society. Applicants from the Global Majority and from communities underrepresented in media are encouraged, as are projects that centre communities and regions usually excluded from global tech policy conversations. Contributions can range from original reporting to policy analysis, and technical practitioners are welcome as long as the work fits the publication's editorial purview. EXPECTATIONS: at least one piece of analysis or reporting per month (exclusive to Tech Policy Press, though it may be republished elsewhere), a mandatory hour-long monthly cohort meeting, a monthly check-in with the editorial team, collaboration with other fellows and the masthead, agreed deadlines, and disclosure of conflicts of interest. Applicants should arrive with a clear area of focus and a sense of how the work will inform both the public and decision-makers. APPLY via the online form by 11:59pm EDT on 24 September 2026, with a CV or resume, a cover letter of no more than two pages, links to prior publications (open access, published within the past three years, at least one in English and at least one solo-authored; social posts, pre-prints and unpublished coursework do not count) and two professional references. Shortlisted candidates may be invited to an online interview. Decisions are expected by early December 2026. Two optional Zoom information sessions run on 9 September at 8am EDT and 16 September at 7pm EDT; registration required.
UNPAID COMMUNITY CALL. Algorave Istanbul, the local node of the international algorave scene (live-coded music and visuals performed for an audience), is looking for new artists to create, experiment and perform with. The call names live coding, sound, visuals, audiovisual performance, and generative or reactive systems, and says explicitly that it is open to formats the organisers have not thought of yet. WHO CAN APPLY: artists based in Istanbul. There is no stated experience requirement and no selection process described. Applications close 30 September 2026. WHAT IS OFFERED: performance opportunities and collaboration within the collective. No fee, stipend or expenses are mentioned anywhere in the call, so treat this as unpaid unless the organisers say otherwise. APPLY through the Google Form, or email algoraveistanbul@gmail.com. The call is published in Turkish and English.
The Wilson Center, the congressionally chartered nonpartisan policy research institution in Washington DC, awards 10 to 20 research fellowships for its 2027-2028 class. Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest while interacting with policymakers in Washington and with other fellows. The Center accepts policy-relevant, nonpartisan proposals that address key foreign policy challenges confronting the United States and the world, and projects must align with at least one of the Center's four scholarship pillars: strategic competition, economic statecraft, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION, and regional scholarship. The technology and innovation pillar is the relevant route for AI governance, emerging technology and digital policy projects, which the Center also supports through its Science and Technology Innovation Program. Fellows work remotely for the duration of the fellowship; the Center covers travel costs for two required trips to Washington DC at the beginning and the conclusion of the term. The stipend is USD 10,000 per month for the twelve-month term, which runs 1 June 2027 to 30 May 2028. ELIGIBILITY: academic candidates need a PhD in hand and either a published book or monograph beyond the dissertation, or a substantial body of research articles (five or more) in reputable peer-reviewed journals. Non-academic applicants (practitioners, journalists, public intellectuals) need at least ten years of relevant experience and a record of substantial policy impact. There is no citizenship restriction, but English proficiency is required. Applications, including letters of recommendation, must be submitted online via Interfolio by 11:59pm ET on 30 September 2026. Questions: fellowships@wilsoncenter.org. NOTE: this is an open-topic foreign policy fellowship, not an AI-specific one; the technology angle depends on how you scope the proposal.
The Societe des arts technologiques (SAT) in Montreal runs a research-creation residency program in arts and technologies for artists and collectives working in the performing arts and/or media arts. The residency funds a research-creation stage of a project in technological arts rather than the finalisation of a finished work, so the call weighs the exploration process and the innovation in it above a polished outcome. Each selected project receives a CAD 10,000 grant, whether the applicant is an individual artist or a collective, plus access to SAT spaces and equipment, technical and creative support from the SAT teams, mentoring and training activities, and documentation and archiving. Access to spaces and equipment is assessed against the project's needs and granted subject to availability. Travel, meal and accommodation costs beyond the grant are not covered. Open to professional artists and artistic collectives worldwide, at any level of experience and from any primary discipline, provided the profile and project suit immersive technologies; collectives must submit a joint portfolio showing they can carry out the project independently, particularly the visual and sound creation inside a dome. Each application must include a form and supporting documents setting out the concept, the technical solutions considered, and what will be explored during the residency. One application per project and per person; incomplete applications are not evaluated; use permanent, downloadable links rather than WeTransfer or similar temporary services. Accommodations and alternative support documents (large print and so on) are available on request at residences@sat.qc.ca. Deadline 18 October 2026. Apply through the Google Form linked from the SAT open-call page.
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.
A one-off 2026 call letting Dutch cultural institutions reuse and adapt digital technology that other institutions have already built and published in the open DigitALL Toolkit, for example translation software shared between theatres or a streaming platform adapted for a new venue. Grants run up to EUR 30,000 and cover technical modification, integration, production and deployment costs. Eligible applicants are museums, theatres, music venues, festivals, film theatres and professional performing arts producers. Applications are submitted online and assessed in order of receipt rather than comparatively, with a decision within ten weeks. The deadline was extended from 31 May 2026 to 1 November 2026 after high demand. IMPORTANT RESTRICTION: this route cannot be used to further develop your own pilot internally; it exists specifically to spread another institution's working technology across the sector. For developing something new, use the DigitALL pilot contribution instead.
The AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships place scientists and engineers inside US federal agencies, congressional offices and the judicial branch for a year of hands-on policymaking, contributing technical knowledge and analytical skills to the federal policy process. AI, data and computing policy placements are among the largest tracks, and AAAS runs a dedicated AI legislative branch cohort that places AI experts in congressional offices at GS-12 Step 10 on the DC locality scale. ELIGIBILITY: US citizens holding a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree in any science or engineering field, or a master's degree in engineering plus three years of post-degree professional experience; some tracks accept a bachelor's plus five years. Relevant expertise includes AI, machine learning, computer science, robotics and data science. Fellows must reside in DC, Maryland or northern Virginia during the fellowship year. TIMELINE: the application portal opens 1 August 2026 and closes 1 November 2026 at 11:59pm ET, with eligibility notification in late November, interview notification January to February 2027, semi-finalist interviews in March, placement offers by early May, and the fellowship year running 1 September 2027 to 31 August 2028. Apply through fellowshipapp.aaas.org.
ACLS Digital Justice Grants fund digital projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of colour and other historically marginalised communities, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, disabled and LGBTQ+ communities. The programme's stated aims are to diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and contribute to public understanding of racial and social justice issues, with an explicit interest in scholars working with under-utilised or understudied source materials and those at institutions with less infrastructure for digital work. TWO TRACKS, one deadline: SEED GRANTS of USD 10,000 to 25,000 for projects in the start-up or prototyping phase, covering planning, prototyping and methodology testing; and DEVELOPMENT GRANTS of USD 50,000 to 100,000 for projects that have moved past proof of concept and can show preliminary work and evidence of engagement. ELIGIBILITY: at least one principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities or interpretive social sciences, and awarded funds must be administered by a US institution of higher education. WHAT IS NOT FUNDED: creative works such as novels or films, textbooks, straightforward translations, purely pedagogical projects, and institutional indirect costs. Note that outputs are expected to be made as widely available as intellectual property allows, ideally under the most liberal open-source or Creative Commons licence. TIMING: applications go through the ACLS online fellowship and grant administration system (ofa.acls.org) by 3 November 2026 at 17:00 ET; grant terms begin between 1 July and 31 December 2027 and run 12 to 18 months. The programme is funded by the Mellon Foundation.
The UCLA Library Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP), funded by Arcadia, grants its ninth cohort of awards to preserve, document and digitize cultural heritage collections at risk from environmental conditions, political uncertainty, inherently unsustainable media, inappropriate storage, or communal and social change. IN SCOPE: 20th and 21st century materials, including print, photographic, film, video, audio, ephemeral and born-digital objects; all funded materials are published open access in the UCLA Library Digital Collections repository. GRANT TYPES: Planning Grants up to USD 20,000 over one year for organization, survey and inventory work before digitization; Project Grants up to USD 70,000 over two years for digitization and metadata creation on collections ready to digitize, or for curating existing digital assets; Regional Grants up to USD 100,000 over two years for digital collections combining materials from three or more institutions, families or archival repositories around one theme, community or historical event, hosted by an organizing institution with prior MEAP grant experience (consult MEAP staff before applying). There is also an invitation-only Emergency Grant track up to USD 10,000 (email meap@library.ucla.edu), and a new AV Grants track up to USD 100,000 for audiovisual archives opening April 2027 with selections in September 2027. TIMELINE: applications opened 14 September 2026; preliminary application webinar 15 October 2026; preliminary applications due Monday 16 November 2026 at 11:59pm Pacific Time via meap.smapply.io; preliminary decisions December 2026; detailed applications due 12 February 2027; awards announced summer 2027. Applications name teams working with the institutions, families or repositories that hold the collections; read the Program Guidelines and Project Eligibility documents on the MEAP site before applying.
Prototype Fund supports the development of socially relevant open-source software, offering low-threshold funding and coaching to individual developers and small teams. ELIGIBILITY: individual developers or teams of up to four; funded members must reside in the EU and the lead entity must be based in Germany. Application window 1 October to 30 November 2026. Apply via the Prototype Fund application page.
The American Sunlight Project works to ensure that citizens have access to trustworthy sources to inform the choices they make in their daily lives. It is looking for a Free Expression Fellow to produce its regular newsletter on censorship, helping readers stay informed on a rapidly evolving US political landscape. RESPONSIBILITIES: compile and write 'Last Week in Censorship', a clear and engaging newsletter-style roundup of platform policy changes, censorship news and regulatory developments that erode American democracy; and, in support of the organisation's censorship tracker, compile instances from the weekly briefing into a database. IDEAL CANDIDATE: motivated to document instances of democratic backsliding in the United States and happy to take on a part-time nonprofit commitment in service of that goal. The posting explicitly welcomes students, retirees and people looking to moonlight for a good cause. REQUIRED: U.S. citizenship or legal residency; exceptional writing skills with a strong command of tone, clarity and synthesis; and knowledge of U.S. politics and social media. DESIRABLE: experience in research, journalism, public policy or a related field. STRONG PLUS: familiarity with tech policy, internet culture, free expression issues and/or platform governance. Familiarity with Substack is a plus but not required. TERMS: roughly 5 to 8 hours per week, fully remote with flexible scheduling, starting as soon as possible and running through December 2026 with possible extension pending funding, for a USD 2,500 honorarium. APPLY by emailing your CV, a short cover note of a couple of paragraphs explaining your interest, and a writing sample (preferably on a tech or policy topic) to benjamin@americansunlight.org with 'Fellow Application' in the subject line. No closing date is stated.
The British Council's standing Travel Grant Fund helps early to mid-career UK filmmakers and XR creatives represent their work abroad, build networks, reach new audiences and raise the international profile of new and emerging UK film and immersive talent. Supported by BFI National Lottery funding in partnership with BFI NETWORK and the BFI International Fund. WHAT IT FUNDS: travel to attend international film festivals, showcases, training and development labs, and co-production forums, across five strands: short film festival grants, feature film festival grants, interactive/XR grants (including VR, immersive storytelling experiences and installations), lab grants and co-production forum grants. AMOUNTS: short and feature festival grants GBP 150 to 1,500 (typically up to GBP 750); XR travel-only grants GBP 150 to 1,500; large XR grants GBP 1,500 to 5,000; lab grants up to GBP 6,000; co-production forum grants up to GBP 2,000. WHO CAN APPLY: UK residents or citizens aged 18+; applicants can be directors, producers or writers attached to the selected project. KEY CONDITIONS: the festival, lab or forum must appear on the British Council's Key Lists of eligible events, and the project must be registered on the British Council's UK Project Database. DEADLINE: rolling, no fixed deadlines; submit at least two weeks before the event starts (retrospective applications for past events are not accepted). Free to apply.
OSIP is the European Space Agency's standing front door for unsolicited novel ideas, launched in 2019 and now the main entry point for new concepts into ESA, both in response to specific problems and through open calls. HOW IT WORKS: ideas are submitted through two mechanisms. Campaigns are targeted calls responding to specific questions with defined timelines (recent examples include Future Navigation Demonstrators and elements for the EOCognitiveLab mission); Channels are permanently open, open-ended calls on broader topics with no deadline. Submissions can go through an optional community discussion phase, with voting and comments, before expert evaluation by ESA. WHO CAN SUBMIT: individuals, businesses, universities and organisations anywhere in the world. The catch for funding: to implement a funded idea yourself, you must be eligible to do business with ESA under Article 18 of its procurement regulations, which in practice means affiliation with an entity in an ESA member state. WHAT FUNDING LOOKS LIKE: successful ideas are typically supported as co-funded PhD or postdoctoral research (ESA plus a university), early technology development activities, or system studies; amounts vary by route and campaign. WHY IT IS ON THE DESK: this is the one genuinely public, always-open route into ESA for independent researchers, technologists and artists working with space data or space technology concepts; new campaigns appear regularly, so checking the platform periodically is worthwhile. Submit via ideas.esa.int.
NO PUBLISHED CLOSING DATE: the call gives no application deadline, so the operative cutoff is the gathering itself on 2-5 November 2026; apply early. The European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance (ESWA) brings back its Digital Rights Gathering in 2026 as The (W)horrors Edition, in Barcelona just after Halloween. It is a capacity and community-building space by and for sex workers, convened to confront the surveillance, censorship and digital violence they face online and to imagine and build more resilient digital futures. A limited number of spaces is reserved for allies working in adjacent digital rights and harm reduction spaces to host sessions. TWO CALLS ARE OPEN. (1) CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS, for sex workers who want to deepen their knowledge of digital rights, online safety and community resilience. Requirements: be a current or former sex worker who is also a member of an organisation in ESWA's network; be available for three days of interactive sessions, skill-sharing and collective learning on 2, 3 and 4 November, and free from 1 November (travel out) through 5 November (travel home), even though some final-day sessions are optional. Selected participants receive full funding covering travel, accommodation and food. (2) CALL FOR TRAINERS AND SESSION PROPOSALS, for facilitators, trainers and educators experienced in digital rights, online safety or sex worker-led organising, who want to deliver an interactive workshop, skill-share or creative session. Sessions run 90 minutes and are compensated at EUR 300 per session, with travel, accommodation and meals covered. Open to current or former sex workers, and to allies with experience in digital rights, digital discrimination, digital security and related fields. SESSION STRANDS: Digital (W)horrors, naming the threats faced online and unpacking how surveillance, censorship and platform policy work against sex workers, including shadowbanning and algorithmic censorship, over-zealous content moderation, law enforcement and third-party surveillance, deplatforming, non-consensual data scraping and retention, and the platforms and policies that enable them; Building Resilience, practical hands-on skills covering open source and privacy-respecting software, how and why to divest from Big Tech platforms, alternative and encrypted communication tools, digital security basics such as protecting data, devices and identity, and other harm-reduction strategies for working and organising online; Imagining Better Futures, creative forward-looking sessions on what a sex worker friendly internet would look like, including prototyping inclusive digital tools, platforms and spaces built by and for sex workers, new apps, alternative social platforms, community-owned tech, and speculative design exercises; Resourcing the Group, sessions focused on care and resilience, including writing and reflection, grounding and somatic exercises, tools for self-care and sustainability in activism, and space for radical rest. The organisers welcome grounded, political and creative contributions from anyone who would like to lead a session. Separate application forms for participants and for session proposals are linked from the call page. Questions: ana@eswalliance.org.
Cultuurloket DigitALL funds the digital innovation of the Dutch cultural sector and is the strongest dedicated digital-culture route currently open to Dutch cultural organisations. It is the successor to the discontinued Kickstart Cultuurfonds, backed by the VandenEnde Foundation, VSBfonds, Ammodo, Het Cultuurfonds and others. The pilot contribution of up to EUR 75,000 supports developing and running a first pilot, prototype or live version of a digital tool, which covers a wide range of creative-technology work embedded in festivals, exhibitions and public programmes. Eligible applicants are theatres, music venues, film theatres, museums, festivals and professional performing arts producers, with collaborations between institutions given priority. The pilot must be tested with the intended public audience, not only with experts, and funding cannot be used exclusively for hardware acquisition. Applications go through an online portal with no deadline and are handled in order of receipt. TIMING: a decision follows within ten weeks of submission, so plan roughly three months of lead time between applying and project start. Training and knowledge development through partner organisations is only covered when included in the submitted budget, so build it in from the outset.
The WBSO (Wet Bevordering Speur- en Ontwikkelingswerk) is the Dutch R&D tax credit administered by RVO. It reduces payroll/wage tax for companies with R&D staff and provides an income-tax deduction for self-employed people doing R&D; it is a tax credit, not a cash grant. For 2026 the benefit is 36 percent of the first EUR 380,000 of R&D wage and other costs (50 percent for qualifying startups) and 16 percent above that; self-employed receive a fixed deduction (and need at least 500 R&D hours per year). Eligible applicants are Dutch companies and self-employed people paying payroll or income tax who carry out qualifying R&D in the EU. Applications are made in advance via Mijn RVO and cannot be retroactive; for coverage of the final three months of a year the deadline is 30 September. Time-keeping and project administration are required. No application fee.
GitHub's Secure Open Source Fund supports maintainers to improve the security of widely-used open-source software, pairing funding with hands-on security training. ELIGIBILITY: individual maintainers or teams of up to three, aged 18 or older, in a region supported by GitHub Sponsors; applicants cannot work for GitHub or its parent company. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; apply once to be considered for upcoming 2026 sessions. Apply via the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund page.
The Sovereign Tech Fund invests in the open digital infrastructure that underpins the modern internet, funding maintenance, security and development of critical open-source base technologies. ELIGIBILITY: individuals, companies and non-profits maintaining or developing critical open-source infrastructure; open worldwide. Applications are accepted on a rolling, year-round basis via the Sovereign Tech Fund page.
FLOSS/fund, backed by Zerodha, provides financial support to free and open-source software projects and maintainers. ELIGIBILITY: individuals and projects worldwide; applicants apply by publishing a funding.json manifest in their public repository as described on the fund's site. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with no deadline.
Rolling-deadline fund for technology-focused projects that promote human rights, internet freedom and open societies. Funds anti-censorship, anti-surveillance, privacy-preserving and circumvention tools, plus applied research. Two-stage process: submit a Concept Note via the OTF online application system; reviewed monthly with feedback in 6-8 weeks. Open internationally.
SIDN fonds (the foundation behind the .nl domain registry) invests in daring projects with societal added value that contribute to a strong internet and strong internet users. The Pioneers track is continuously open and awards up to EUR 10,000 to develop an innovative idea into a demo, pilot or experimental design; it is open to both individuals and legal entities. Larger projects are funded through theme calls issued once or twice a year (legal entities only). Projects must show innovation and public value and share their results openly; plain website or app building and purely B2B proposals are excluded. No application fee.
The Digital Defenders Partnership runs the main rapid-response fund for digital threats against human rights defenders, journalists, activists and the organisations they work in. The Incident Response Fund covers urgent costs after or during a digital attack, including incident response and forensics, emergency infrastructure or hosting changes, secure devices, account recovery, legal or psychosocial support tied to the incident, and short-term relocation of digital operations. This is the practical counterpart to physical-safety emergency funds for anyone whose work makes them a target online. ELIGIBILITY: human rights defenders, journalists, activists and civil-society organisations facing digital threats or attacks, worldwide. Applications are rolling; DDP aims to respond within two weeks and funds activities for up to four months. DDP also runs a Sustainable Protection Fund for longer-term digital-security capacity building (currently invitation-only in some regions) and an invitation-only Community and Network Fund of up to EUR 15,000 for rapid responders and digital-security facilitators. Contact team@digitaldefenders.org or apply through apply.grants.digitaldefenders.org.
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.
The ILIAD Intensive is a four-week, full-time, in-person program for mathematically strong researchers interested in foundational AI alignment, running in London (at LISA) and in Berkeley. It runs five days a week, 10am to 6pm, in cohorts of 15 to 30 participants. CURRICULUM, across five clusters: Alignment (decomposing the alignment problem, pretraining, post-training and deployment, reward learning); Learning (deep learning theory, singular learning theory, training dynamics); Abstractions, Representations and Interpretability (mechanistic interpretability, natural latents); Agency (reinforcement learning, decision theory, agent foundations); and Safety Guarantees (debate, steganography, the limits of interpretability). MONEY: no tuition is charged. Each participant receives a USD 5,000 travel and housing allowance, office space at the venue, and lunch and dinner five days a week. Participants book and pay for their own travel and accommodation out of the allowance. ELIGIBILITY: a strong mathematical background, typically graduate-level study or a completed degree in mathematics, physics or theoretical computer science, though mathematical maturity is weighted more heavily than specific credentials. Research experience, general competence and motivation are also assessed. Prior machine learning or alignment experience is not required. DEADLINE: no fixed closing date is published. A single application covers several upcoming programs and applicants indicate their preferred dates and locations; applications are being accepted for the October 2026 and November 2026 cohorts. HOW TO APPLY: through the application portal at iliad.ac/apply. Questions to contact@iliad.ac.
MAGIC Grants, a US 501(c)(3), funds applied privacy-technology research and development through its Monero Fund: cryptographic security proofs, membership proofs, privacy, UX and efficiency improvements, audits, and infrastructure in and around the Monero ecosystem. Grants run USD 5,000-20,000 equivalent and are open to all competent researchers regardless of educational attainment, as individuals or teams, internationally (standard US nonprofit due-diligence and sanctions screening applies). One of the few rolling, individual-friendly privacy-tech research funds; decisions typically arrive within three weeks.
FUTO funds open-source software that challenges the tech oligopoly: privacy tools, secure messaging, alternative operating systems, developer and creative tools. Microgrants of USD 1,000-5,000 support individuals and early-stage projects, while larger grants go to established open-source projects and nonprofits; FUTO has distributed over USD 5 million across 20 projects to date, including Signal and Tor. Applications are genuinely open and rolling (via grantapps@futo.org), with no stated geographic restrictions. Squarely in the NLnet / Prototype Fund tradition of anti-monopoly FOSS funding.