Google Offers Up to $500k for Climate R&D Projects
Google has launched its 2026 Carbon Removal and Superpollutant Elimination R&D Awards, offering up to $500,000 in funding for research projects tackling carbon dioxide removal and high-impact climate pollutants. The program is open to researchers at universities, research institutions, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and businesses until September 25.
The awards aim to increase confidence in the climate impact of mitigation strategies or help move them toward larger-scale deployment. Eligible projects can range from academic and field research to engineering prototypes, modeling, data analysis, literature reviews, and meta-analyses. The funding call covers 11 priority research areas alongside a broader open category for projects addressing other bottlenecks in carbon removal or superpollutant abatement.
Funding targets methane, carbon capture, and nature-based removal, with the largest individual awards available for research into methane abatement in diffuse emission streams. Google says methane has contributed around 30%, or approximately 0.5°C, of global warming since the preindustrial era. The company is particularly interested in technologies capable of treating highly dilute methane streams from sources such as ventilation air, dairy barns, and landfill gas.