Climate software & data funding
Grants and contracts for MRV, climate analytics, decarbonisation platforms, and ESG data infrastructure.
Climate software is the hardest sustainability category to fund non-dilutively, most public-money programmes require capex deployment or hardware, and software-only plays compete in narrower calls. The strongest options are EU Horizon Cluster 4 (Digital), Innovate UK Smart Grants, EIT Climate-KIC, EU Pathfinder, ARPA-E SCALEUP, and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst Software. ARIA UK is opening to software-led decarbonisation in 2026.
The richer non-dilutive path for climate software is often procurement contracts rather than grants, large public buyers (NHS, DfE, EU agencies, US GSA) are increasingly procuring carbon-accounting, MRV, fleet-emissions, and ESG-reporting platforms with multi-year contracts. Treat the public-procurement feeds (TED, UK Find a Tender, SAM.gov, UNGM) as a funding source.
Live opportunities
- Contract
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Assessment and Sustainability Reporting Support for Indian NBFC-MFI
Deadline 3 Nov 2026World Bank GroupIFC seeks a consulting firm over 24 months to strengthen an Indian NBFC-MFI's GHG accounting (Scope 1-3, financed emissions pilots) and sustainability reporting (materiality, roadmap, Year 1-2 reports). Best fits a climate-data consultancy or sustainability advisory firm with GHG inventory and financial-sector experience and on-site capacity in India.
- Contract
Support for Territorial Climate Energy Plan revision
Deadline 3 Nov 2026Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole• $109KSupport for the revision of a territorial climate-energy plan (PCAET) for a French metropolitan authority, combining fixed-price study work with unit-priced framework services. Bidders should have expertise in climate planning, energy transition strategy, and territorial sustainability assessment.
- Grant
Expression of interest: First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) builder: programme entry
Deadline 5 Nov 2026Innovate UK• Total fund £770,000UK-registered businesses can apply for support to develop climate technology first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects, with successful applicants invited to pursue larger grants in phase two. This expression of interest stage funds early-stage climate tech innovation and commercialisation.
- Contract
IRAQ-LRQS-2026-010-(9206813) National Digital Climate Information System.
Deadline 5 Nov 2026UNICEFUNICEF Iraq is seeking a provider to build a National Digital Climate Information System, a climate data platform for national use. Software, data and climate-informatics firms, including SMEs with public-sector digital experience in Iraq or the region, are the likely fit.
- Contract
Tech support for the dev. of the PCF requirements of the NHS Supplier Roadmap
Deadline 9 Nov 2026NHS England• $120KNHS England is procuring third-party technical support to select, tailor and test product carbon footprinting (PCF) methods for the 2028 NHS Supplier Roadmap milestone, working with a technical reference group and real supplier data by Q4 2026/27. It suits consultancies or specialist SMEs with product carbon footprinting and GHG accounting expertise in the health sector.
- Grant
Transformative sustainable AI technologies
Deadline 10 Nov 2026UK Research and Innovation• Up to £602,500This grant funds high-risk, speculative research projects aimed at making future AI systems more sustainable, with up to £602,500 available per project. Applicants must be based at UK research organisations eligible for UKRI funding.
- Contract
Hosting, support, operation, maintenance and evolution of climate resilience analysis tool
Deadline 10 Nov 2026Oficina de Informática Presupuestaria• $166KA Spanish public body is procuring hosting, support, operation, maintenance and evolution of a software tool that analyses climate resilience of EU-funded projects and infrastructure. It suits a software or data services firm with climate-risk expertise and cloud operations capability.
- Contract
Wildfire information systems design and development for national coordination centre
Deadline 10 Nov 2026Dirección General de Biodiversidad, Bosques y DesertificaciónThe Spanish Directorate General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification is procuring design, development and implementation of new information management systems for the National Wildfire Information Coordination Centre. It suits software development firms with experience in public-sector, risk-analysis or emergency-coordination systems.
- Contract
Tech support for the dev. of the PCF requirements of the NHS Supplier Roadmap
Deadline 11 Nov 2026NHS England• $120KNHS England seeks a third party with Product Carbon Footprinting (PCF) expertise in the health sector to select, tailor and test technical PCF requirements for the 2028 NHS Supplier Roadmap milestone, working with a technical reference group and real supplier data by Q4 26/27. A specialist sustainability or carbon-accounting consultancy, including a small firm, fits well given the roughly £96K value and consulting scope.
- Contract
Design and Development of Palau’s GHG Inventory, NDC, and Climate Support Tracking Database Management System
Deadline 18 Nov 2026Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)GGGI is procuring the design and development of a database management system to support Palau's greenhouse gas inventory, Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) tracking, and climate support monitoring. Suited to climate-data software firms, MRV specialists, or consultancies with GHG accounting and software development experience.
Active funders
Africa Climate Ventures (ACV)
OpenBFA Global Catalyst Fund
OpenClimake
OpenDeadline calendar
Climate Software and Data grants closing in the next 90 days, grouped by urgency. Each card opens the grants listed in that window.
Frequently asked
Why is software harder to fund with grants than hardware?▾
Most climate grant programmes were designed to de-risk capex, first-of-a-kind plants, demonstration projects, pilot deployments. Software has lower upfront cost and clearer venture-investability, so funders historically left it to VCs. That's shifting (EU Horizon Cluster 4 explicitly funds software, ARIA UK is moving in this direction), but the pool is still 10×–50× smaller than equivalent hardware programmes.
Are carbon-accounting platforms (Watershed, Sweep, Greenly competitors) eligible for any non-dilutive funding?▾
They compete in a few tracks: (1) EIC Accelerator (€2.5M, grant + equity), (2) Innovate UK Smart Grants, (3) EU Horizon Cluster 4, (4) public procurement for compliance-driven buyers. The procurement angle is increasingly the largest pot, CSRD-driven demand from EU member states is putting carbon-accounting on departmental tender plans.
Where can MRV (monitoring, reporting, verification) startups apply?▾
For carbon markets MRV specifically: Frontier (when wrapping CDR delivery), EU Horizon Cluster 5, Innovate UK CDR Programme, DOE V-MRV. For broader compliance MRV: EU CRCF infrastructure programmes, US SBIR Climate, UK Defra Net Zero Innovation. Most successful MRV applications pair a software platform with a hardware sensor or a measurement-science partner.
Do AI/ML-for-climate plays have their own funding track?▾
Increasingly yes. ARIA UK, ARPA-E ENERGYWERX, EU Horizon AI calls, and DoE's Foundation Models for Climate programme are explicitly funding AI-for-decarbonisation. The bar is high, most reviewers expect domain integration, not just "we trained a model on climate data." Pair with a hardware/process partner where possible.
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