Funding Opportunities

Salary support via the NIH Research Specialist (R50) mechanism for Research Software Engineers contributing to NIH-funded biomedical, clinical, behavioral, or health-related research software, tools, and algorithms. Targets RSEs outside a traditional independent-investigator career path.

Geography

USA

Focus area

Biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and health research software

Website

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-24-011.html

Successor to POSE (NSF 24-606). Supports turning promising open-source research products into sustainable, secure open-source ecosystems, via three tracks: planning and scoping a new ecosystem, establishing or expanding an ecosystem around a product with existing adoption, and enhancing the safety, security, and privacy of existing ecosystems. A prior planning award is not required for the other tracks.

Eligibility

See solicitation NSF 26-506.

Geography

USA

Focus area

Open-source research software ecosystems

Website

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/pesose-pathways-enable-secure-open-source-ecosystems

Both researchers and research support staff may submit an application for financial support for organising an open science meeting.

Eligibility

Dutch institutions

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

Open Science communities that want to meet.

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/calls/open-science-meetings-0

Funds maintainers of widely-depended-on open source projects to improve security practices, through a 3-week education program, GitHub Security Lab office hours, and direct funding tied to security milestones at 6- and 12-month check-ins. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and considered for all program sessions.

Eligibility

Open source project maintainers (individuals or teams of up to 3) aged 18+, with an active GitHub profile, located in a GitHub Sponsors-supported region, not a current GitHub employee, with a clearly licensed project that has demonstrated community adoption and a defined governance structure.

Geography

Global (GitHub Sponsors-supported regions)

Focus area

Open source software security

Website

https://github.com/open-source/github-secure-open-source-fund

Provides recognition and funding to leaders and advocates of high-quality scientific software, who propose a funded activity (e.g. a workshop, tutorial, or community content) that promotes better scientific software practices.

Eligibility

Applicants at any career stage (student through senior professional) affiliated with a U.S.-based institution able to receive federal funding.

Geography

USA

Focus area

Scientific software developer productivity and sustainability

Website

https://bssw.io/pages/bssw-fellowship-program

Supports local networks, workshops, hackathons, mentoring programmes, and training that build skills and clarify career pathways for digital Research Technical Professionals. Covers room/venue hire and catering; excludes staff time and equipment purchases.

Eligibility

UK-based researchers and dRTPs involved with research software, research data, or research computing, or freelance trainers/educators in this sector; can support non-UK collaborators visiting the UK.

Geography

UK

Focus area

Community activities for the dRTP ecosystem

Website

https://drtp-skills.ac.uk/funds-community/

Reimbursement-based fund supporting early-career digital Research Technical Professionals to attend conferences, training courses, and certificate programmes, or undertake inter-institutional knowledge-exchange visits. Staff time is ineligible; recipients commit to sharing outcomes via blog posts or webinars.

Eligibility

Early-career professionals and those transitioning into dRTP roles, primarily UK-based; must show career benefit, plans to share outcomes locally, and have explored other funding sources first.

Geography

UK

Focus area

Professional development for dRTPs

Website

https://drtp-skills.ac.uk/funds-prof-dev/

The next round of the Open Science Infrastructure programme, supporting improvement and further development of existing digital infrastructures that enable open science, with a greater focus on collaboration and consortium formation. Now open for letters of intent.

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

Digital infrastructure for open science

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/calls/open-science-infrastructure

Funds state and regional consortia (governments, institutions, industry, and philanthropy) to expand researcher access to the compute needed for AI-enabled scientific discovery. NSF supports consortium coordination, workforce development, and faculty training, while consortia arrange funding for the underlying computing resources.

Eligibility

Limited submission: one award per state or multi-state region; one proposal per institution; individuals may serve as PI, co-PI, or Senior/Key Personnel on at most one proposal per deadline. See solicitation NSF 26-513 for eligible organization types.

Geography

USA

Focus area

AI research computing infrastructure

Website

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial

A new funding instrument supporting researchers in making non-traditional research outputs — such as datasets, software, and creative works — open and FAIR-compliant, including development of guidelines, standards, or tools that improve findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

FAIR non-traditional research outputs

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/calls/fair-research-outputs

Supports training and education that prepares the research workforce to create, use, and support advanced cyberinfrastructure — computation, large-scale data handling and analytics, networking, and security — and promotes broad adoption of CI tools and methods, including integrating computational skills into undergraduate and graduate education.

Eligibility

An individual may serve as PI, co-PI, or Senior Personnel on only one Pilot or Implementation proposal per competition. See solicitation NSF 23-520 for eligible PI types.

Geography

USA

Focus area

Research workforce training for advanced cyberinfrastructure

Website

https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/training-based-workforce-development-advanced

Funds the establishment of citizen science hubs to strengthen knowledge, expertise, and support for citizen science (including science communication) within Dutch research organisations.

Eligibility

At least two applicants from different Dutch research organisations (universities, university medical centres, KNAW/NWO institutes, RIVM, KNMI) with contracts covering the project duration; at most one application per organisation.

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

Citizen science support within research organisations

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/calls/citizen-science-hubs-2026

MIT Solve’s open innovation challenges seek tech-based solutions from anyone, anywhere. The 2027 cycle has four challenges: Global Health, Global Climate, Global Learning, and Global Economic Prosperity. Selected Solvers receive a grant from Solve and are eligible for sponsor prizes.

Eligibility

Teams with tech-based solutions at the prototype, pilot, growth, or scale stage (concept-stage solutions are eligible only for the Indigenous Communities Fellowship); previous Solvers may apply with new solutions only. Some prizes are restricted to US-based teams.

Geography

Global

Focus area

Tech-based solutions to global challenges in health, climate, learning, and economic prosperity

Website

https://solve.mit.edu/challenges

OTF’s Rapid Response Fund gives recipients either direct financial support or technical services from trusted vendors. This RFP is looking for vendors who can provide emergency digital security support in selected service categories, helping independent media, civil society, and at-risk individuals or organizations hit by state-sponsored digital attacks stay safe, get back online, prevent future attacks, and respond to sudden censorship events.

Eligibility

Service providers, organizations, and individuals, mostly digital security practitioners, with technical, thematic, or regional expertise in responding to digital emergencies. Submissions go to rapidresponse@opentech.fund and must follow the RFP’s “Proposal Submission” guidelines.

Geography

Global

Focus area

Emergency digital security support for independent media and civil society facing state-sponsored digital attacks or censorship

Website

https://www.opentech.fund/news/open-technology-fund-requests-proposals-for-the-rapid-response-fund/

Part of the Open Internet Stack initiative, funded by the European Commission through Horizon Europe. Restack supports projects that deliver, mature, and scale internet commons, from libre chips and secure devices to middleware, local-first infrastructure, and end-user applications. In scope: core internet infrastructure and open alternatives to widely used closed technologies, full-stack security, software supply chain, reproducibility, decoupling of infrastructure layers, and interoperability standards. Grantees can also get accessibility scans, security audits, reproducible packaging, licensing and governance help, and standardisation support.

Eligibility

No categorical exclusions of persons. Projects need a strong European dimension, usually met by team members based in Horizon Europe-eligible countries receiving at least 60% of the funds; exceptionally strong proposals from outside those countries may be considered. Results must be released under a recognised free or open source license. AI-related projects are out of scope unless they already have more than 1 million active human users.

Geography

EU / Horizon Europe associated countries

Focus area

Operational internet commons across the full technology stack

Website

https://nlnet.nl/restack/