Call for Proposals – Rockefeller Foundation Cities Deliver: AI Solutions for Public Services 2026 – YOA

Deadline: November 29, 2026

Proposals are invited for the Rockefeller Foundation Cities Deliver: AI Solutions for Public Services. Nearly half of the world’s inhabitants lives in cities. Public providers form these residents’ on a regular basis lives. They have an effect on whether or not they can get well being care, discover significant work, dwell safely, and have a voice in native selections. City governments and their companions are on the entrance traces of delivering these public providers.

Artificial intelligence now presents new methods to satisfy these wants. AI may also help residents entry providers, anticipate issues earlier than they turn out to be crises, and reply to resident wants extra successfully. Putting these capabilities to work requires options constructed round residents’ wants and developed in partnership with metropolis governments.

The Rockefeller Foundation and OpenAI Foundation are committing $50 million to Cities Deliver to help this work. The initiative will present grants of $500,000 to $2 million to organizations working with metropolis governments to enhance public providers by way of AI, particularly for underserved communities. Together, these initiatives will purpose to succeed in as much as 100 million metropolis residents worldwide.

Focus Areas

They are looking for proposals that enhance entry to and high quality of public providers in weak or underserved communities within the following focus areas:

• Public Health: Solutions that reach the attain and readiness of public well being programs, from frontline care and illness surveillance to inhabitants-scale prevention. Includes healthcare, incapacity providers, meals entry, and vitamin.
• Economic Mobility: Solutions use AI to attach unemployed and underemployed residents to earnings, expertise, and advantages. Includes AI-enabled advantages enrollment, profession navigation and expertise-primarily based hiring, and employer-aligned coaching.
• Environmental Resilience: Solutions that assist cities forecast, stand up to, and get well from environmental shocks, defending each folks and the infrastructure they rely on. Includes public security and emergency providers, vitality and grid infrastructure, and land administration in communities in danger.
• Civic Engagement: Solutions that assist metropolis governments attain residents proactively and reply quicker, from two-approach service channels to participatory choice-making. Includes digital entry and connectivity, court docket providers, and allowing and regulatory processes. Excludes initiatives associated to voting or elections.

Benefits

• Funding: $500,000 to $2 million over 24 months.
• Peer studying: A facilitated cohort, plus webinars, mentorship, and analysis help primarily based on demand.
• Technical help: Occasional AI product and engineering help, topic to capability. This doesn’t embody bespoke help for every mission.
• Visibility and community: Access to Rockefeller Foundation and OpenAI Foundation networks of metropolis leaders, funders, and technical companions.
• Convening: Grantees and key stakeholders will likely be invited to take part in a worldwide or regional convening to share experiences and classes and to showcase their work.

Eligibility

Every mission wants:

• An eligible lead group:A nonprofit (together with college labs and fiscally sponsored organizations) or a public profit company. For-profits might qualify in restricted instances with a charitable mission, and not more than an incidental profit to the for-profit firm’s enterprise. Governments might not apply immediately.
• A metropolis accomplice: All applicant organizations should have a metropolis accomplice with a dedication to collaborate.
• A charitable goal: A profit to underserved, poor, or distressed communities, or to social welfare.

Existing grantees of The Rockefeller Foundation and RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC) are additionally eligible to apply.

They are trying for initiatives and partnerships that:

• Respond to demand: The mission addresses credible demand from metropolis authorities companions and the communities they serve.
• Start with the issue: The mission tackles a big drawback that your metropolis authorities has prioritized, which impacts weak communities or promotes social welfare.
• Then plan an answer: The mission takes benefit of the most recent capabilities of frontier AI fashions, and people capabilities are core to the proposed resolution.
• Focus on readiness: Your staff and metropolis accomplice can combine know-how into public sector settings.
• Build for sustainability: The mission is properly-positioned to be sustained when it comes to comply with-on funding, metropolis capability, and integration with authorities programs.
• Act responsibly: Applicants show the power to construct and handle AI options safely and responsibly.
• Plan to study: Applicants suggest a transparent studying agenda for assessing progress together with analysis, consumer suggestions, and path to social affect.

Application

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to Rockefeller Foundation Cities Deliver: AI Solutions for Public Services.