Funder: Digital Science
Due Dates (Anticipated): October 2027 (Application deadline, anticipated)
Funding Amounts: Up to £25,000, equity-free; may be split among multiple recipients
Summary: Supports early-stage software innovations that advance research, with a 2026 focus on trustworthy, multi-step AI agents embedded in research workflows.
Key Information: Open globally to individuals, students, startups and research teams; a well-formed concept is sufficient.
Description
The Catalyst Grant is Digital Science’s international initiative supporting early-stage software tools and technologies that advance research and strengthen its impact on society. The 2026 theme, “Agentic Workflows You Can Trust,” backs AI tools, agents and platforms that plan, execute and review multi-step work rather than answer a single prompt. The emphasis is on systems embedded in existing research workflows, with provenance, governance and accountability built in.
Relevant work spans writing, discovery, evidence synthesis, peer review, funding decisions and research integrity. Examples include AI co-writers with contribution logs, source-verification agents, governed knowledge graphs, explainable drug-discovery tools, reviewer matching and conflict-of-interest screening, and auditable manuscript checks. Digital Science prioritises tools that show their workings and can be trusted by the researchers and organisations relying on them.
