Climate and environment funding: where to look at each stage

Climate and environment money is spread across more kinds of funder than almost any other field. Universities, foreign ministries, development agencies, private foundations, corporate programmes and even photography festivals all run calls. That spread is useful, because there is something for most people, but it also means the right call for you is often listed somewhere you'd never think to look. This guide sorts climate and environment funding by career stage, says what each type usually pays for, and points to examples open on OpenDoors right now.

One rule before you start: treat every amount, age limit and deadline as something to confirm on the funder's own page. Calls change from year to year, and a detail that held last cycle may not hold this one. Each OpenDoors listing links to its official source so you can check.

If you want a funded master's

Taught master's funding in this field mostly comes from three places: university scholarships, government scholarship schemes, and joint degrees run by groups of universities.

Erasmus Mundus joint master's degrees are worth a close look. Students usually study in two or more European countries, and the consortium running each degree awards its own scholarships. Several have environmental themes, and two currently listed are the Erasmus Mundus master's in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM) and the Erasmus Mundus master's in Plant Health in Sustainable Cropping Systems.

Three things catch people out with these:

• The scholarship deadline is often earlier than the admission deadline. If you apply in a later round, you may get a place but no funding.
• Each consortium sets its own rules. Required documents, language tests and reference formats differ, so don't reuse one application wholesale.
• Some degrees offer more than one kind of award. Read which one you're being considered for, and whether you need to tick a box to be considered at all.

For a wider view of open master's funding, the scholarships page lets you filter by level and region.

If you're a PhD student or early-career researcher

At this stage the useful categories are short field-research grants, visiting fellowships abroad, and research residencies.

Visiting fellowships pay for you to spend a set period at a host lab in another country. The French government's MOPGA visiting fellowship for early-career researchers is one built specifically around climate and environmental research. Visiting fellowships often ask for a named host and a project agreed with them, so check the call for that first. If it does, the real first step is an email to a potential host, well before the deadline.

Residencies are shorter and more mixed. The Humboldt Residency Programme brings researchers together with artists and people working in civil society around a shared theme, which for 2027 is ocean-related. If your work sits between disciplines, residencies like this suit you better than a standard research grant.

Some research money is tied to nationality. The John G. Bene Fellowship is for students in Canada, and the Switzer Fellowship for graduate students in the United States. If you're studying in either country, these are worth checking before you spend time on international calls with far larger applicant pools.

If you're an established researcher

Senior researchers mostly compete for project grants, and the larger ones often require partners. The Cambridge-Africa Climate Collaborative Research Fund is a good example: it funds pairs of researchers, one at Cambridge and one at an African university, working together on climate resilience.

Partnership calls reward groundwork you can't do in a week. If a call needs a co-applicant at another institution, start that conversation as soon as you see the call. A rushed partnership tends to show in the proposal, and reviewers notice when the two halves of a project don't connect.

The grants page lists open research funding across fields, and you can narrow it to your region.

If you're a practitioner, not an academic

Plenty of climate funding is meant for people who do the work outside universities: planners, designers, advocates, photographers, policy staff.

Mid-career fellowships give experienced people a year to step back and study. The Loeb Fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School of Design is aimed at practitioners working on the built and natural environment. These fellowships care about what you've done in practice, so your application should read like a record of work, with places, projects and results, rather than a list of qualifications.

Creative fellowships exist too. The Vital Impacts environmental photography fellowships support long-term documentary projects on environmental issues. For calls like this, your portfolio does most of the persuading, and a tight edit of your strongest images usually beats a large selection.

Some calls are for governments rather than individuals. The Commonwealth Blue Charter Incubator funds country-led ocean projects. If you work in a ministry or agency, calls like this are easy to miss because they rarely appear on student scholarship sites.

If you're starting a climate venture or community project

Early-stage founders and young organisers have their own set of options: idea competitions, fellowships with project funding, and challenge prizes.

• The develoPPP Ventures ideas competition offers early-stage funding to young companies with social or environmental business models in developing and emerging countries.
• The beVisioneers fellowship is for young people building sustainability projects, with project funding attached.
• The Generation Regen Challenge backs youth-led non-profits and social enterprises working on sustainability.

These calls are judged mostly on the project. Selectors want to see a specific problem, evidence that you understand the people affected, and a realistic first step. A short, concrete pilot plan with numbers you can defend is more convincing than a large vision with nothing behind it. The accelerators page lists other founder programmes that are open now.

How to plan across the season

Most of the examples above close between late November and February, which makes the next few weeks a good time to plan. A simple approach:

1. Pick two or three calls that match your stage, not ten. Each one deserves its own application.
2. Work back from each deadline. Allow at least four weeks for references and any host or partner letters, since those depend on other people's diaries.
3. Read the official call in full before you write anything, and note the word limits, required documents and selection criteria.
4. Draft the hardest section first. For research calls that's usually the proposal; for fellowships it's the personal statement or the account of your work.
5. Keep a single document of reusable material, such as project descriptions and outcomes, so later applications go faster.

You can see everything that closes in the next few weeks on the closing soon page.

Next step

Choose your stage from the sections above and open the two listings closest to your work. Read each official call in full, then note the date by which you need references. If you'd like to see which open calls you're eligible for, set up a free profile on OpenDoors and it will check each rule against your background and track your deadlines in one place.