Digital Science Catalyst Grant 2026 (up to £25,000) – YOA

Deadline: October 5, 2026

Applications are open for the Digital Science Catalyst Grant 2026. The Digital Science Catalyst Grant is a global initiative to assist innovation in new software program instruments and applied sciences to advance analysis and create significant change. The program helps and invests in early-stage concepts within the novel use of know-how with an award of up to £25,000 for probably the most promising concepts that support science and additional its impression on society.

AI is beginning to do analysis, not simply describe it. The subsequent breakthroughs will come from agentic workflows, autonomous and multi-step, that researchers, establishments and funders can truly depend on. For 2026, they’re backing the early-stage instruments, brokers and platforms making that actual: AI that acts on analysis, embedded within the workflows it serves, with provenance, governance and accountability in-built.

Benefits

• The award is up to £25,000, however the grant’s actual worth is the conversations it begins. Our staff comes from analysis and analysis software program, with many years of expertise between us. Most candidates don’t win an award, however they will come away with recommendation, introductions and a sharper thought. We make investments in the neighborhood as a result of we come from it.

Eligibility

They need early-stage startups, analysis initiatives and moonshot thinkers constructing agentic instruments that:

• Operate throughout a number of steps, planning, executing and reviewing, fairly than answering a single immediate;
• Embed within the workflows researchers, establishments and publishers already use;
• Carry audit trails, governance controls and provenance, so the individuals who depend on them can belief them;
• Tackle an actual downside throughout the analysis lifecycle: writing, discovery, proof synthesis, peer overview, funding selections or analysis integrity.

Application

How to check your thought earlier than making use of:

• Name the analysis determination your agent impacts, and who makes it as we speak (who, when, how usually).
• Say the place it sits within the analysis lifecycle: writing, discovery, proof synthesis, peer overview, funding selections or analysis integrity. If it isn’t one in all these, it in all probability isn’t a match this 12 months.
• Name the software or system it has to stay inside, and who already makes use of that software on daily basis. They are extra excited by one thing embedded in actual work than a standalone demo.
• Check the work genuinely wants a couple of step. If a single nicely-written immediate does the job, it isn’t an agentic workflow.
• Test the place it breaks. Give it a process it ought to refuse, flag or escalate, and document what truly occurred.
• Name your consequence metric, for instance reviewer hours saved, time to funding determination, or duplicate work prevented.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to Digital Science Catalyst Grant.