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

Funds scoping activities to help existing open-source research products with small user communities transition into sustainable, robust open-source ecosystems. Phase I supports early formation of managing organizations and training for teams building such ecosystems.

Geography

USA

Focus area

Open-source research software ecosystems

Website

https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/pose-pathways-enable-open-source-ecosystems

Supports transition of promising open-source research products with small existing user and contributor communities into sustainable, robust open-source ecosystems. A POSE Phase I award is not required to apply to Phase II.

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. Session 5 applications are currently open and under rolling review.

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

Funds individuals’ plans to advance research software practices over a 15-month fellowship period (1 January 2027 – 31 March 2028), selected via a proposal and six-minute screencast presentation, with an emphasis on collaboration, communication, and practical contributions to the research software community.

Eligibility

Open to those doing work to promote good computational practices in research. Primarily for UK-based applicants or those with formal affiliation to a UK-based institution; up to three positions are available for international applicants, who must demonstrate how their plans foster international collaboration or how UK research culture benefits from their perspective/techniques.

Geography

UK (with limited international positions)

Focus area

Research software sustainability and best practices

Website

https://www.software.ac.uk/programmes/fellowship-programme/apply-fellowship-programme

Formerly the Information Controls Fellowship Program, ICRP funds applied research into how authoritarian governments restrict the free flow of information, cut access to the open internet, and implement censorship and surveillance — and the ways these threats to internet freedom can be countered. Projects should include a technical component or output and are reviewed in a two-stage concept-note-then-full-proposal process.

Eligibility

Open to students at any level and to junior- to mid-career practitioners, including those unaffiliated with an academic institution. Typical backgrounds include computer science, engineering, information security, software development, social sciences, and data visualization. Applicants from the majority world and those with experience living in repressive environments are especially encouraged. Researchers embed with a host organization for the duration of the project.

Geography

Global

Focus area

Internet censorship, surveillance, and circumvention research in repressive information environments

Website

https://www.opentech.fund/research-2/icrp/

Supports trainers and training providers improving the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of training resources in the digital research infrastructure space, e.g. metadata schemas, trainer documentation, skills-framework mapping, and delivery-mode adaptation. Projects run up to 12 months, with shorter projects preferred.

Eligibility

Lead applicants must be based at UK universities, UK non-profit organisations, or work as freelance trainers/educators, able to sign a grant agreement with the University of Edinburgh.

Geography

UK

Focus area

FAIRifying training resources for digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs)

Website

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

Funds development of tools, frameworks, and approaches — such as self-assessment tools and skill-role-resource alignment frameworks — that make the digital Research Technical Professional training landscape more transparent and accessible. Outputs must be FAIR and Open.

Eligibility

Lead applicants must be based at UK universities, UK non-profit organisations, or work as freelance trainers/educators; collaborative multi-institutional proposals accepted for larger projects.

Geography

UK

Focus area

Tools and frameworks for navigating the dRTP skills ecosystem

Website

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

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/

Pre-announcement for 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. Full call details, including eligibility, will be published in the Staatscourant closer to opening.

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

Digital infrastructure for open science

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/news/pre-announcement-new-funding-round-open-science-infrastructure-programme

Awards graduate students to publish data, methodologies, results, code, null results, or standardization work from their Master’s or Ph.D. research that would otherwise go unpublished. Winners receive a $10,000 contract with a 6-week timeline to complete and publicly post the work.

Eligibility

Graduate students (Master’s or Ph.D.) within approximately one year of degree completion, not currently affiliated with Astera Institute; requires an advisor letter confirming eligibility and permission to publish.

Geography

Global (except countries under U.S. sanctions)

Focus area

Publishing unpublished research outputs from graduate work

Website

https://astera.org/hidden-science-competition/

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

Pre-announcement for 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. Full call details will be published in the Staatscourant closer to opening.

Geography

Netherlands

Focus area

FAIR non-traditional research outputs

Website

https://www.openscience.nl/en/news/pre-announcement-first-round-of-the-fair-research-outputs-call