Hello Everyone,
36 new opportunities on the Education, Human Rights and Inclusion page this cycle, all added since the July mid-month update. Three currents cut across its education, inclusion, governance, and culture strands: transnational education partnerships as soft power, artificial intelligence showing up on both sides of state power, and inclusion written into eligibility rather than mission statements.
The transnational-education partnership machine is running hot. The British Council alone has three parallel calls open, Going Global TNE grants with India, TNE exploratory grants for Armenia, Bangladesh, and Thailand, and Disability Inclusion Partnerships, each pairing a UK institution with an overseas lead. EIT Urban Mobility adds its Master School and RIS Education calls, and the Inter-University Council for East Africa funds regional student mobility at scale. One funder deploying many coordinated calls, all built around cross-border institutional partnership, is the soft-power pattern we named in July, now the dominant shape of education money on this page.
Artificial intelligence shows up on both sides of state power. The World Bank’s twin GovTech challenges in Morocco put AI to work auditing public accounts, while the Human Rights Foundation’s AI for Individual Rights Fund arms dissidents with open-source, privacy-protecting tools against state surveillance. Between them sit the talent pipelines, from Google DeepMind master’s scholarships to the GATE Institute in Sofia. The tell is that funders now treat AI as governing infrastructure and as a shield against it at once, extending the AI-as-instrument thread we have tracked since the spring.
Inclusion is written into eligibility, not mission statements. Lloyds Bank Foundation’s New Beginnings fund gates its unrestricted grants to organizations serving prison leavers, care leavers, domestic-abuse survivors, and refugees; the British Council reserves a partnership stream for disability inclusion; the Asian Development Bank’s challenge funds navigation for blind and visually impaired transit users; and Project ReMAKE and Earlybird’s Vision Lab back people with convictions and founders with migration backgrounds. The design choice, encoding who benefits directly into who can apply, is eligibility-constraint-as-policy-intent, and it is how structural inclusion is being funded this month.
Open Calls: Current grant and opportunities with a deadline. Grants are listed by closing date. 51 open opportunities- 33 new!
Rolling Applications: current grant and opportunities with rolling applications (but it’s still best to submit as early as possible). 29 rolling opportunities- 3 new!
Long term planning: Grants that have closed their current rounds, but are expected to open new windows. 6 long term opportunities!
A quick tip for returning readers: if you want to jump straight to the newest additions, use CTRL F to search for “New!” and navigate quickly to the latest funding opportunities
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Civil Society Fund Plus (CSF+) Programme: Round Two Call for Expression of Interest (Ethiopia), Christian Aid.
Christian Aid, delivering the European Union’s Civil Society Fund Plus in Ethiopia, is opening a second round of expressions of interest for local and grassroots civil society organizations across Tigray, South Ethiopia, Central Ethiopia, and Addis Ababa. The fund pairs sub-grants with tailored capacity strengthening and network building, signaling that the sponsors want durable local institutions rather than one-off projects. They seek organizations that can turn community trust into good governance, civic participation, peacebuilding, and accountability, with women, youth, and persons with disabilities at the center. Prioritizing groups led by those same constituencies, and requiring a real presence in the region, shows a preference for proximity over reach. The strongest fits are small, rooted organizations ready to grow their governance and civic voice.
Geographies: Ethiopia (Africa; Eastern Africa).
Who can apply: Local and grassroots civil society organizations, and CSO networks and associations, that have operational experience and maintain a physical office or operational presence in one of the target areas (Addis Ababa, Tigray, Central Ethiopia, or South Ethiopia). Networks representing multiple CSOs are eligible.
Funding amount: Total programme value EUR 4,046,471 over four years (85% EU-financed, 15% Christian Aid-financed), covering direct sub-grants, capacity strengthening, and networking across both rounds. Per-grant sub-grant amount not published on the EOI announcement or programme page (specified in Annex III guideline, which was not accessible)..
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs: SDG5; SDG10; SDG16; SDG17; Focus areas: grassroots cso sub-granting; organizational capacity building; civic participation; social accountability; preventing irregular migration; network building.
Deadline: August 4, 2026.
This expression of interest is aimed squarely at local and grassroots organizations with a real physical presence in Tigray, South Ethiopia, Central Ethiopia, or Addis Ababa, and it prioritizes groups led by women, youth, and persons with disabilities. Proximity is the whole point, so an EOI that demonstrates community trust and constituency-led leadership will read far more convincingly than reach or budget size.
Change Makers, The National Lottery Community Fund. *New!*
The National Lottery Community Fund opens Change Makers, a program funding organizations across England that help community leaders drive change in and for the places they know best. The fund wants to reshape how leadership is supported, building durable systems around people who carry lived experience of poverty, disadvantage, and discrimination rather than one-off projects. It backs work that lets these leaders influence wider systems and share what they learn across the sector, treating leadership itself as the engine of lasting community change. Asking applicants to operate across multiple regions and to bring established local relationships signals a preference for organizations already rooted in the work, not newcomers. The strongest fits are experienced civil society bodies, alone or in partnership, that support community leadership at scale.
Geographies: United Kingdom.
Who can apply: Organizations applying alone or as an existing partnership that already have experience supporting community leaders, experience working with places, people and communities facing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination, and established relationships with organizations working at a local level.
Funding amount: £1,000,000 to £5,000,000 per project over 5 years (up to 12 projects; part of a ~£50 million programme).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 1, 10, 16. Focus: community leadership development, systems change, equity.
Deadline: August 5, 2026.
CfI: Earlier Identification of UK Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), Innovate UK.
Innovate UK, the national innovation agency, has opened a Contracts for Innovation competition to build tools that identify special educational needs in children earlier, more fairly, and more reliably. Working with UK Research and Innovation and the Department for Education, it is funding this from a mission to break down barriers to opportunity, and it wants solutions that frontline education and health services can use at scale. It seeks measurable change for children whose needs go unrecognized today, especially before formal schooling begins. The competition funds R&D services as procurement contracts rather than grants and reserves later phases for proven early teams, signaling that it wants real deployment. The strongest fits are organizations with deployable assessment technology and a commercialization plan that keeps UK children as the beneficiaries.
Geographies: United Kingdom.
Who can apply: Organisations of any size (including internationally based) leading as a single legal entity, with the majority of project work and key deliverables carried out in the UK.
Funding amount: Up to roughly USD 635,000 per project (GBP 200,000 to GBP 500,000), from a total of about USD 3,175,000 (GBP 2.5 million) across up to 12 contracts.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDG3, SDG4, SDG10. Focus: early SEN identification.
Deadline: August 5, 2026.
Innovate UK is buying deployable technology and real-world traction here, not academic exploration, which is why later phases are reserved for proven teams. Show a tool that frontline education and health services could actually use at scale, with a commercialization route that keeps UK children as the beneficiaries. Bring users, parents, teachers and SENCOs, into your design story rather than treating them as an afterthought.
Partnerships for an Enabling Environment for Civil Society - Policy and Method Development, Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, or Sida, is opening its Partnerships for an Enabling Environment for Civil Society call for policy and method development, funding organizations that work to protect and promote civic space worldwide. Sida runs this instrument through its wider civil society strategy, treating an independent and pluralistic civil society as a condition for democratic governance. It seeks to back work that improves the conditions in which civil society actors organize and operate as independent actors, asking applicants to develop the policies and methods that make that possible. Framing the call around civic space worldwide rather than any single country signals a focus on cross-border approaches. The strongest fits are established civil society organizations with a track record in civic space, advocacy and method development.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: Civil society organizations that spearhead efforts to protect and promote civic space worldwide through work on policy and method development that contributes to an enabling environment and a strong independent civil society.
Funding amount: Not publicly disclosed.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs: SDG16; SDG17; Focus areas: civic space; enabling environment; civil society strengthening; policy development; method development.
Deadline: August 6, 2026.
This call is pitched at organizations that work globally on protecting civic space through policy and method development, not at frontline service delivery in a single country. The strongest fits are civil society actors who already shape the enabling environment for civil society itself, so read Sida’s eligibility instructions closely before assuming your work sits at that systemic level.
Karibu New Realities Grant (Africa Grantmaking Program), Karibu Foundation.
The Karibu Foundation runs its Africa Grantmaking Program, the Karibu New Realities Grant, an African-led participatory fund backing social movements, networks, cooperatives, and collectives across Sub-Saharan Africa. Karibu reads the connected economic, socio-cultural, political, and ecological crises facing the continent as rooted in shared systems, and it puts the granting decisions in the hands of an African Core Group rather than a Northern office. What it seeks to back is creative, non-violent organizing that goes after root causes and builds lasting movement power, not service delivery or single projects. The concept note plus optional video format and openness to unregistered groups through a fiscal sponsor signal that Karibu wants reach into formations that conventional funders miss. The strongest fits are pan-African, feminist, and margin-led movements with little prior grant access.
Geographies: Africa.
Who can apply: African-led social movements, networks, cooperatives, and collectives tackling root causes of injustice; unregistered groups may apply via a fiscal sponsor.
Funding amount: USD 5,000 to USD 15,000 (10 to 15 grants per cycle).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDG5, SDG10, SDG16. Focus: movement and power building.
Deadline: August 6, 2026.
Karibu is explicitly funding power, not projects: it wants organizing that disrupts the status quo and builds lasting movement muscle, and it will not fund service delivery. The African Core Group decides, so speak to organizers rather than program officers. Lead with your theory of change on root causes and the tactics that make you disruptive, and if you are unregistered, lean into the fiscal-sponsor route rather than treating it as a barrier.
Sustainable School Connectivity through Connectivity Credits, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). *New!*
The United Nations Children’s Fund is seeking implementing partners for Sustainable School Connectivity through Connectivity Credits, which funds lasting internet access for schools across fourteen countries. UNICEF is trying to fix a common failure, where schools go dark once initial connection funding ends, by paying for verified connectivity as an outcome rather than subsidizing infrastructure. It wants partners who can select and manage local internet providers, run the credits verification system, and build a market where providers are rewarded for keeping schools online. The call splits into connectivity delivery and credits management, open to applicants individually or as a consortium, signaling that UNICEF is testing which delivery model scales. The strongest fits are digital inclusion nonprofits, foundations, and civil society organizations with school connectivity experience and in-country reach.
Geographies: Africa, Caribbean, Central America, Central Asia, Oceania, South America.
Who can apply: UNICEF seeks expressions of interest from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Foundations, Academic Institutions, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Government Entities, State-Owned Entities, Non-Profit Organizations, and other eligible programme partners with relevant experien…
Funding amount: Indicative budget not disclosed (UN Partner Portal norm; Section 7 field blank by design); partners negotiate funding post-selection within standard UNICEF cost categories under a Programme Cooperation Agreement.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 9, 10, 17. Focus: school internet connectivity, connectivity credits, digital divide.
Deadline: August 7, 2026.
Vanquis Banking Group: The Manjit Wolstenholme Fund 2026, GiveBradford (Bradford District Community Foundation). *New!*
GiveBradford and Vanquis Banking Group run the Manjit Wolstenholme Fund in memory of the first woman from an ethnic minority background to chair a FTSE 100 company, and it funds Bradford community organizations helping young people in deprived areas take their next steps in education or employment. The fund backs work that raises aspirations, builds confidence and life skills, and tackles low attainment, from career-focused learning projects to university visits and role model events. Capping eligible income and requiring completed reporting before reapplication signals a deliberate tilt toward smaller grassroots groups rather than established providers, and the funder explicitly welcomes work with underrepresented communities. The strongest fits are small Bradford charities and community organizations already delivering youth work in low-income neighborhoods who can show a clear educational or employment outcome.
Geographies: Europe (United Kingdom).
Who can apply: Incorporated not-for-profit organizations (e.g. CIO, CIC limited by guarantee, charitable companies) registered with the Charity Commission, Companies House or FCA Mutuals Public Register, and registered charities without an incorporated structure (the latter cannot use grants for PAYE staff).
Funding amount: £10,000 (fixed amount).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 10. Focus: youth education, life skills, mentoring.
Deadline: August 10, 2026.
Next Wave: Breakthrough Wave 1, Innovate UK.
Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, opens Next Wave: Breakthrough Wave 1 to back early industrial research where creative technology meets the country’s frontier creative industries: video games, film and television, advertising, and music and the performing arts. The agency wants to carry promising ideas past proof of concept into commercial digital products and services, reducing the risk that keeps private money on the sidelines and helping these sectors grow. It seeks ambitious work that opens a genuinely new revenue line rather than business as usual, and the tight delivery window with a market-ready expectation signals that it is buying near-term commercial traction, not exploratory research. The strongest fits are UK registered, commercially focused small businesses building distinctive createch innovation in one of the named frontier sectors.
Geographies: United Kingdom.
Who can apply: UK registered, profit-driven SMEs leading or working alone; academic institutions, CICs, and charities cannot lead, though they may collaborate.
Funding amount: Up to roughly USD 635,000 per project (GBP 100,000 to GBP 500,000), from a total fund of about USD 12,700,000 (GBP 10 million).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Arts, Culture & Media; SDG8, SDG9. Focus: creative technology commercialization.
Deadline: August 11, 2026.
What this call is really funding is near-term commercial traction in the createch space, not research for its own sake, so a market-ready trajectory matters more than novelty alone. Frame your project around a genuinely new revenue line in one of the named frontier sectors and steer well clear of business-as-usual work. Be specific about route to market and why public funding unlocks something private money will not yet risk.
Connections Through Culture 2026, British Council.
The British Council opens its Connections Through Culture grants, funding collaborative arts projects that pair a UK partner with a partner in one of more than thirty participating countries. As the United Kingdom’s body for cultural relations, the British Council uses these grants to build durable working ties between the UK creative sector and counterparts abroad, treating each project as the start of a relationship rather than a one-off exchange. It backs co-creation, residencies, research, showcases and festival collaboration across visual arts, film, music, literature, theatre, dance, design and creative technology. Requiring a signed partnership letter and legally based partners on both sides signals that the British Council wants genuine shared authorship across borders. The strongest fits are artists, organizations, festivals and creative hubs with a real overseas counterpart.
Geographies: United Kingdom, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Mainland China, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam.
Who can apply: Artists, cultural organizations, festivals, and creative hubs, paired with at least one UK partner and one partner in an eligible participating country, each legally based.
Funding amount: USD 6,350 to USD 19,050 per project (GBP 5,000 to GBP 15,000, maximum varies by partner country).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Arts, Culture & Media; SDG8, SDG16, SDG17. Focus: cross-border cultural collaboration.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
The British Council is funding relationships, not events: it treats each grant as the opening chapter of a lasting UK-overseas creative partnership, which is why the signed partnership letter carries so much weight. Show that both sides genuinely co-author the work rather than one hosting the other. Make the collaboration feel like the beginning of an ongoing tie, and be specific about what each partner brings and where the relationship goes next.
2027 Vision Grants Program (Research Planning Grants for Education Equity), Spencer Foundation.
The Spencer Foundation runs Vision Grants to fund the stage most research funders skip: planning. Rather than backing a finished study, it gives teams time and space to incubate an ambitious, large-scale research program aimed at transforming education systems toward equity, on the premise that this kind of work needs room to develop before it is forced into a proposal. The design makes the priorities explicit. Proposals are deliberately not meant to be fully formed; reviewers weigh the promise and transformative potential of the idea, the strength and diversity of the team, and a credible process for equitable co-design with practitioners, policymakers, and communities. Funded teams join a cohort learning program, and a Vision Grant is the required gateway to Spencer’s far larger transformative research funding.
Geographies: Global.
Who can apply: PIs and Co-PIs with an earned doctorate or terminal professional degree, affiliated with a nonprofit or public institution that will administer the grant. Not awarded directly to individuals.
Funding amount: USD $75,000 total per grant.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 10. Focus: education research, education equity, systems transformation.
Deadline: August 12, 2026.
Cultural Horizons: Innovative Cultural Products (Competition 1), Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. *New!*
The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, through its Cultural Horizons program co-funded by the European Union, opens the Innovative Cultural Products call to fund cultural projects built jointly by Ukrainian and European organizations. The foundation is using these grants to keep culture within reach for Ukrainians displaced by war and to draw the country’s cultural sector into durable European partnerships. It seeks work that pairs artistic content with digital tools such as augmented reality and interactive platforms, and that builds inclusion and sustainability into how each product is made. Requiring a Ukrainian lead and a registered European partner signals that the foundation treats each grant as the start of a lasting relationship. The strongest fits are Ukrainian cultural organizations and creative entrepreneurs with a committed European partner and an accessible, inventive product.
Geographies: Europe (Ukraine).
Who can apply: A legal entity of any form of ownership, or an individual entrepreneur, registered in Ukraine (excluding temporarily occupied territories) for at least one year as of the call announcement, with relevant experience in the cultural field, applying in partnership with at least one organization registered in an EU member…
Funding amount: Grant: EUR 10,000 (500,000 UAH) to EUR 20,000 (1,000,000 UAH) per project; total call budget EUR 400,000 (19,108,000 UAH).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Arts, Culture & Media; SDGs 10, 11, 17. Focus: innovative cultural products, ar/vr, artificial intelligence.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Strengthening Preschool-Family Partnership for Inclusive Early Childhood Development (CEF/BIH/2026/003), UNICEF. *New!*
UNICEF in Bosnia and Herzegovina is inviting civil society organizations to strengthen partnerships between preschools and families so that young children, including children with disabilities, are supported within mainstream early childhood settings. The call sits inside a European Union funded program to build inclusive social, child protection, and education systems and prevent institutionalization, signaling that UNICEF wants family engagement built into public preschools rather than run as parallel services. The selected partner will adapt existing programs guided by UNICEF’s Parenting Support Framework, train preschool professionals through mentoring and communities of practice, and pilot approaches across participating municipalities. Scoring rewards sector expertise and relevance over novelty. The strongest fits are organizations grounded in Bosnia and Herzegovina with early childhood and parenting support track records and ties to education authorities and universities.
Geographies: Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Who can apply: Civil society organizations (national and international NGOs and community-based organizations) registered on the UN Partner Portal and able to implement in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Funding amount: Indicative Budget: 120000.00000.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 5, 10. Focus: preschool-family partnership, early childhood intervention, teacher professional development.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
National Grants Program 2026, Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation.
The Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation runs its National Grant program to back Canadian charities working to change the everyday reality of family caregivers. The foundation treats unpaid caregiving as a systemic problem rather than a private one, funding projects that ease the structural burdens caregivers carry, alongside research and thought leadership that make those burdens visible. It looks to support new tools, resources, and innovative solutions that reach care partners across the whole country, not a single community. Restricting eligibility to registered charities whose core mission centers caregivers, and asking applicants to plan for sustainability past a single year of funding, signals that the foundation wants durable capacity rather than one-off pilots. The strongest fits are national caregiver-serving charities with research or program models ready to scale.
Geographies: Canada (Northern America).
Who can apply: Registered Canadian charities whose core mission is to support family caregivers, with the capacity to develop work that is applicable and relevant to a wide cross section of care partners across Canada..
Funding amount: CAD $300,000 (maximum, single-year grant).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs: SDG3; SDG10; Focus areas: family caregivers; unpaid caregiving; caregiver mental health; caregiving research; care partner resources.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
The eligibility line is narrow and specific: registered Canadian charities whose core mission is family caregivers, which screens out organizations that touch caregiving only at the margins. With a single-year grant up to 300,000 dollars, the funder wants nationally applicable tools and a credible plan for what survives past year one, so build sustainability and cross-Canada relevance in from the start.
Sir Walter St. John’s Educational Charity - Education Grants, Sir Walter St. John’s Educational Charity.
Sir Walter St. John’s Educational Charity funds the education and training of children and young people under 25 across the London boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth, with a preference for Battersea. The charity works through three tiers, from small grants for local groups to multi-year strategic awards, so grassroots organizations and larger projects can both find a route in. It backs work with children facing the steepest barriers, including refugee and asylum-seeking young people, disabled children, young carers, and those leaving care. Asking that projects address needs identified by local communities, and favoring strategic applicants it has supported before, signals a funder that trusts neighborhood knowledge and long relationships over one-off bets. The strongest fits are Wandsworth and Lambeth education organizations serving disadvantaged children with a clear educational purpose.
Geographies: United Kingdom (London boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth).
Who can apply: Local community and voluntary organizations and registered charities working with under-25s in Wandsworth and Lambeth.
Funding amount: Up to USD 31,750 per year (small grants up to GBP 1,500; strategic grants up to GBP 25,000/year for three years).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDG4, SDG10. Focus: disadvantaged children’s education.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
This is a deeply local funder that trusts neighborhood knowledge and long relationships over novelty, so the work it backs answers a need the Wandsworth or Lambeth community itself has named. Ground your proposal in that local evidence and in the children facing the steepest barriers. If this is your first approach, the small-grant tier is the natural door in, with the strategic track opening once the charity knows your work.
BHR Grant Program, UNDP Türkiye.
UNDP Türkiye’s Business and Human Rights (BHR) Grant Program, funded by the European Union under the Responsible Businesses, Resilient Civil Society Project, is funding Turkish civil society organizations to strengthen BHR standards in Türkiye, with grants of USD $60,000 to USD $140,000 per project across three lots totaling approximately USD $1.13 million. The funder logic ties EU regulatory pressure on corporate human-rights conduct to Turkish CSO capacity-building: Lot 1 (USD $80,001 to $140,000) fosters structured dialogue and cooperation between businesses and rights-holders; Lot 2 (USD $60,000 to $80,000) improves CSO capacity for BHR-related programming, advocacy, and monitoring; Lot 3 (USD $60,000 to $80,000) advances women’s rights and empowerment in business contexts. The eligibility framing is geographically bounded by Turkish legal status: applicants must be CSOs established under Turkish Civil Code (Law 4721) and Law on Associations (5253) with legal entity established before 31 December 2024. Lot 1 mandates a partnership with a business-rights-holder dialogue facilitator.
Geographies: Türkiye.
Who can apply: Turkish CSOs established under Turkish Civil Code (Law 4721) and Law on Associations (5253) with legal entity established before 31 December 2024. Partners may include other non-profit legal entities in Türkiye. Lot 1 requires a partnership with a business-rights-holder dialogue facilitator.
Funding amount: USD $60,000 to $140,000 per project; total indicative allocation USD $1,130,000 across 3 lots.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment; Philanthropy & Civil Society. Focus areas: business and human rights, structured business-CSO dialogue, women’s rights in business contexts.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Lot 1’s mandatory business-rights-holder dialogue partnership is the call’s tightest structural filter; applications without an articulated, committed partner from the business community or business associations will not pass Lot 1 review regardless of CSO strength. Applicants without that partnership should submit under Lot 2 or Lot 3 instead.
Young Strategists Forum 2027, German Marshall Fund of the United States. *New!*
The German Marshall Fund of the United States runs the Young Strategists Forum, a fellowship that gathers emerging foreign policy leaders in Tokyo to sharpen how they think about security and competition across the Indo-Pacific. Working with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the fund treats strategy as a craft that improves under pressure, so the week centers on a long grand strategy simulation where participants play the United States and regional powers and ration military, diplomatic, and economic tools through successive crises. It wants people who will hold real influence over the coming decades, recruiting academics, journalists, officials, and military officers early in their careers. The strongest fits are mid-career professionals in international affairs who want to test their judgment against peers and produce policy writing afterward.
Geographies: Asia, Eastern Asia, Europe, Northern America, Oceania (United States, Japan).
Who can apply: Emerging leaders between the ages of 28 and 42 - academics, journalists, policy makers, politicians, business professionals, and military officers - from the United States, Europe, Japan, and other like-minded Asian countries. Participants are selected through a competitive process. Individual applicants only.
Funding amount: Fully funded: international airfare, domestic travel, meals, accommodations, and ground transportation during the Young Strategists Forum covered by the organizers. No cash stipend stated.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Governance, Policy & Advocacy; SDGs 16, 17. Focus: transatlantic security, indo-pacific security, strategic simulation.
Deadline: August 14, 2026.
Earlybird Vision Lab - Cohort 8, Earlybird Venture Capital. *New!*
Earlybird Vision Lab is Germany’s first venture capital incubator and impact fund for pre-seed startups led by founders with migration backgrounds, now recruiting its eighth cohort. Earlybird, a pan-European technology investor, built the program with corporate partners to widen who gets to build companies in Germany, where language, cultural, and bureaucratic barriers keep many capable immigrant founders from early capital. Over six months it pairs an early investment with mentoring, workshops, and access to an investor network, closing with a demo day for the founder community. Funding these teams through a convertible instrument signals that Earlybird treats them as investable companies with follow-on potential, not recipients of charity. The strongest fits are Germany-based, migrant-founded teams with a working product and early market traction.
Geographies: Europe, Western Europe (Germany).
Who can apply: Highly motivated pre-seed founding teams based in Germany with at least one first-generation migrant founder, addressing large (multi-billion euro) markets, with a distinctive MVP with clear USP and defensibility, early indication of product-market fit and a sales pipeline, and a healthy business model.
Funding amount: EUR 25,000 (convertible loan).
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 8, 10. Focus: migrant founders, pre-seed investment, startup incubator.
Deadline: August 15, 2026.
MENA Junior Fellowship 2026, Social Sciences Lab (SSL-MENA). *New!*
Social Sciences Lab, an independent research institution focused on the Middle East and North Africa, opens its MENA Junior Fellowship to early-career scholars and recent graduates working on the region. The program offers structured research training, mentorship, academic supervision, and support toward publication, alongside a year of affiliation with the Lab and its research community. The design points to a capacity-building aim: SSL is investing in the next generation of MENA-focused researchers and their integration into academic and policy networks rather than funding a single output. Requiring Arabic proficiency and open work on the region, the fellowship signals a preference for scholars close to their subject. The strongest fits are junior researchers seeking supervision, publication support, and a lasting scholarly community.
Geographies: Western Asia, Northern Africa.
Who can apply: Early-career scholars, recent graduates, and independent researchers working on MENA topics. Applicants must hold at least a bachelor’s degree, be proficient in Arabic (English an advantage), and be MENA nationals or demonstrate a clear interest in MENA studies.
Funding amount: No fixed award amount is published on the call page.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4. Focus: mena studies, research training, academic publishing.
Deadline: August 16, 2026.
Mackie’s of Scotland Charity Grant, Mackie’s of Scotland. *New!*
Mackie’s of Scotland, the family-owned ice cream and chocolate maker in Aberdeenshire, has launched its first Charity Grant to mark forty years of production on the family farm. The company is turning an anniversary into a structured, national act of giving to charities and community groups. It seeks organizations that support young people, strengthen communities, promote wellbeing, protect the environment, or deliver vital services to people who need them most. The application asks for the work organizations do, the people they support, and how funding would deepen their impact, signaling that trust in grassroots judgment outweighs heavy process. A separate staff nomination stream keeps employees central to the giving. The strongest fits are small UK charities and community groups whose everyday services would be expanded by a modest, unrestricted award.
Geographies: United Kingdom.
Who can apply: Charities and community groups in the United Kingdom, particularly those supporting young people, strengthening communities, promoting wellbeing, protecting the environment, or delivering vital services to those who need them most.
Funding amount: £40,000 total fund; three £10,000 grants via open application; ten £1,000 donations via staff nomination.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Social Inclusion & Community Wellbeing; SDGs 3, 10, 11. Focus: young people, community strengthening, wellbeing promotion.
Deadline: August 20, 2026.
EAC Student Mobility Scholarship Scheme (EAC-SMS) 2026/2027, Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA). *New!*
The Inter-University Council for East Africa opens its East African Community Student Mobility Scholarship Scheme, funding students from the Community’s Partner States to pursue diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral study at a university outside their home country. The council treats higher education as regional infrastructure, using shared classrooms to knit the Community closer together. It backs young East Africans who will carry cross-border professional ties home, so it deliberately requires study abroad within the region rather than at home. The cost-sharing design, where host universities waive fees and the council covers travel, insurance, and research support while families handle living costs, signals a program built for broad reach across six countries. The strongest fits are academically strong nationals of Partner States ready to study across a border.
Geographies: Africa, Eastern Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda).
Who can apply: Individual students who are nationals and residents of an EAC Partner State (national ID, passport or birth certificate required). Applicants must apply to an eligible programme at a university in a Partner State other than their own, and meet the host programme’s academic entry requirements.
Funding amount: Fully funded scholarship: host universities waive tuition and examination fees; IUCEA Secretariat covers travel expenses, health insurance, and a research lump sum for Master’s and PhD; no per-award monetary figure published.
Targeted Sectors / SDGs: Education; SDGs 4, 10, 17. Focus: student mobility, cross-border study, tertiary education access.
Deadline: August 20, 2026.
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