Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Energy & Food: September 2026 Funding Opportunities (39 new opportunities)

Thirty-nine opportunities on the Agriculture, Climate, Environment, Energy and Food page this cycle, twenty-two closing before the end of September.

Five conservation funders here write the check to a person. The International Iguana Foundation, the Whitley Fund for Nature, The Explorers Club through both the Kensington Conservation Grant and the Stephenson Exploration Advancement Program, the Neotropical Grassland Conservancy, and the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust. Five distinct funders writing checks to named individuals, several of them preferring nationals of the country where the work happens. No institution, no host, no fiscal sponsor, and several of them prefer nationals of the country where the work happens. On a page whose largest calls need three partners in three countries, these five are the most reachable things on it.

The entries are concentrated in the Global South and the money is not. The volume of entries on this page is in Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and almost all of it is under USD $25,000: the Kenyan youth track on a fifty-fifty community match, agroforestry in Karamoja, climate-resilient energy access in Ethiopia, an agriculture fellowship in Maharashtra, the Pulitzer Center’s Global South civil society microgrants. Every award above USD $200,000 belongs to a European, North American or multilateral funder. And the most open-looking multilateral vehicles are the most gated of all: the Kunming Biodiversity Fund disburses only to UN Participating Organizations, so nationals of the countries it serves enter as sub-partners, and the European Partnership for Agriculture of Data favors continuation by the incumbent consortium. The practical version: the total at the top of this page overstates what a Southern applicant can actually reach, and the two most open-looking multilateral vehicles turn out to be the most gated of all. Sort this page by eligibility rather than by envelope.

The circular economy calls here are run by industry bodies and innovation agencies. Vinnova funds circular solutions for forest-based industries, plastics and textiles. Ecoembes runs a circular packaging challenge where the real prize is a pilot inside the company that finances Spain’s recycling system. The Raw Materials Partnership pools roughly €41 million across the raw materials value chain. The Research Fund for Coal and Steel funds the social and economic transition of coal regions, and specifies dissemination of what is known rather than new studies. The Department of Energy pays for storage design that eases production. The ask in each is supply chain capability rather than an environmental outcome, which means the proposal that wins describes a manufacturing problem being solved. Come at these from an environmental framing and you will be answering a question they did not ask.

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Sustainable Circular Solutions for Forest-Based Industries, Plastics and Textiles, Vinnova. *New!* *Closing soon!*

Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, is opening a call under its Sustainable Value Chains programme for circular solutions across forest-based industries, plastics, and textiles. The agency wants materials kept in use rather than discarded, funding work that designs out waste, substitutes virgin inputs with secondary raw materials, and builds business models around reuse. It looks for solutions that can be implemented, not merely described, which is why the call asks each consortium to combine a solution provider, an implementer, and a customer for recycled or reused material. Requiring at least three organizations and a Swedish coordinating entity signals an agency funding delivery chains rather than isolated research. The strongest fits are Swedish-anchored consortia that pair technical capability with a partner ready to put the result into production.

• Geographies: Sweden, in northern Europe, with foreign organizations able to join as unfunded partners or to receive funding only through a registered Swedish branch.

• Who can apply: Collaborative projects of at least three participating legal entities, including companies of any size, public actors, research institutes, universities, and other relevant organizations, where the constellation covers at least two of three roles, a potential solution provider, a participant who intends to implement the solution, and a customer using secondary or sustainable raw materials or reuse-based products and services, and where the coordinating party is a Swedish legal entity conducting activities in Sweden; sole proprietors and individuals are not eligible.

• Funding amount: Up to SEK 5,000,000 (SEK 5 million, roughly USD 481,000) per project, with no stated minimum, and aid intensity varying by organization type from 25 to 60 percent for companies and up to 100 percent for universities and non-economic public organizations.

• Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; Agriculture & Food Systems; Innovation & Technology; SDGs 9, 12. Focus: circular economy, secondary raw materials, forest-based industries, plastics and textiles, reuse business models.

• Deadline: September 4, 2026.

• Learn more and apply here.

Global South Civil Society Microgrants, Pulitzer Center. *New!* *Closing soon!*

The Pulitzer Center is inviting applications for its Global South Civil Society Microgrants, funding civic engagement projects that put its supported journalism to work in communities across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The Center is using these grants to carry reporting on rainforests, oceans, and the intersection of climate and labor beyond publication and into dialogue, education, and creative expression. What it wants to back is not more journalism but the moment a community turns a story into shared understanding and action, centering the people who protect and depend on these ecosystems. Requiring at least one Pulitzer Center story and a defined audience signals that reach and impact matter more than scale. The strongest fits are grassroots collectives, youth movements, and civil society coalitions rooted in these regions.

• Geographies: The Global South, particularly Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

• Who can apply: Grassroots organizations, community educators, civil society organizations and coalitions, youth movements, and other groups working at the intersection of journalism, civic rights, and active citizenship, which must have past experience developing and implementing civic engagement activities in the Global South, proven experience on the identified topics, and the operational capacity to manage microgrant resources from an international organization.

• Funding amount: USD $2,000 to $4,000 per microgrant, with applicants specifying the amount requested alongside a draft budget; the total programme envelope is not disclosed.

• Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Climate & Environment; Arts, Culture & Media; Philanthropy & Civil Society; SDGs 5, 13, 14, 15. Focus: rainforest degradation, indigenous rights, ocean governance, marine conservation, climate and labor, civic engagement, public dialogue.

• Deadline: September 6, 2026.

• Learn more and apply here.

Transforming Whole-Farm Systems through Regenerative Agriculture in Extremadura, Spain, EIT Food. *New!* *Closing soon!*

EIT Food is inviting agronomic consultancies, training organizations, and monitoring specialists to apply to deliver a regenerative agriculture program for corn and tomato growers across the Extremadura landscape in Spain. The organization pairs its own catalytic funding with contributions from three global food and consumer goods companies, using their sourcing relationships to move whole farm systems toward regenerative practice at scale. What it wants to back is measurable, verifiable change in soil health, water use, and emissions, not one-off training events, which is why the call bundles coordination, farmer advisory, and a rigorous verification system into a single mandate. Requiring local presence and Spanish fluency signals that EIT Food expects trusted, field-level delivery. The strongest fits are Spain-based teams that combine agronomic depth with credible measurement capability.

• Geographies: Spain, specifically the corn and tomato production areas of the Extremadura region, with consortium members drawn from EU or Horizon Europe eligible countries.

• Who can apply: Monitoring, reporting and verification providers, agronomic consultancies, training organisations, or related entities, applying as a single entity or as a consortium of at most three entities addressing all three work packages, where each participant has been a legally incorporated entity in an EU or Horizon Europe eligible country for at least three years, holds a PIC number, and can demonstrate organisational capacity and local presence in Spain while operating in Spanish and English.

• Funding amount: Up to €820,000 (EUR 820,000, roughly USD 885,600), which is both the total available funding and the maximum per application, with a single winner receiving the full envelope on an actual-costs basis.

• Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems; Climate & Environment; Innovation & Technology; SDGs 2, 12, 13, 15. Focus: regenerative agriculture, agronomic advisory, farmer training, monitoring reporting and verification, soil carbon, landscape-scale transition.

• Deadline: September 10, 2026.

• Learn more and apply here.

Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program: Animal Welfare Round (2027), Ambitious Impact (AIM). *New!* *Closing soon!*

Ambitious Impact, running its Charity Entrepreneurship program, opens an incubation round dedicated entirely to farmed animal welfare, recruiting people to found new charities that take on factory farming. For this round the organization rebuilt its research process around frontier problems rather than pre-scoped solutions, inviting founders to develop their own approaches to big, tractable questions in welfare technology, primary research, humane breeding, and neglected populations. It pairs each participant with a co-founder, funds a training phase and a longer exploration phase, and backs the strongest projects with seed capital to launch. The design signals a belief that talent and mid-stage funding, not ideas, are the real bottleneck. The strongest fits are analytical career switchers, industry insiders, veterinarians, and researchers willing to build something new for animals.

• Geographies: Global, open to applicants from any country, with in-person components of two weeks in London plus an optional two weeks in San Francisco, travel fully covered and visa support available.

• Who can apply: Individuals from any country and background who want to found a high-impact animal welfare charity, with no nonprofit, animal welfare, or founding experience required because the program provides the training; particularly good fits include farm, supply chain and ESG professionals, veterinarians, engineers and product builders, scientists and researchers, recruiters and people leaders, and consultants, lawyers and other career switchers, with founders ranging in age from 20 to over 50 and no vegan, vegetarian, or activist background needed.

• Funding amount: USD $150,000 to $190,000 in seed funding per project, reaching roughly 95 percent of projects, plus a needs-based monthly living stipend of USD $2,000 to $5,000, capped at $10,000, during the training and exploration phases.

• Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Agriculture & Food Systems; Climate & Environment; Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs 2, 12. Focus: farmed animal welfare, factory farming reform, welfare technology, humane breeding, neglected animal populations, charity incubation.

• Deadline: September 13, 2026.

• Learn more and apply here.