2026 Google Carbon Removal and Superpollutant Elimination R&D Awards DEADLINE September 25, 2026

grants R & D Focus

August 19, 2026

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(Google) Both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and superpollutant emissions abatement are critical strategies for addressing climate change and achieving a global net-zero scenario under which temperatures are stabilized. This call for proposals seeks research and development (R&D) projects that target breakthroughs in our understanding of the fundamental science underlying mitigation strategies, or in their ability to be implemented in the real world. These breakthroughs may originate from a broad range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) theoretical, laboratory or field-based academic research, literature reviews or meta-analyses, engineering research and prototyping, and modeling or data analysis.

Research areas are outlined below, and applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for R&D projects that clearly meet the objectives of a specific area. All priority research areas are scoped around one, or both, of the following themes:

Enhancing the certainty (both of climate impact, and in the ability to measure this) of a given mitigation strategy;
Enhancing the scale of a given mitigation strategy—targeting gigatonne scale for CDR, and megatonne scale for superpollutant emissions abatement.

Proposals with objectives beyond the priority research areas may consider their eligibility under the Open call. Proposals that meet the objectives of the priority research areas will be prioritized for funding before projects in the open call are considered.

How to apply

Applications are now open. The deadline for submission of applications is September 25th 2026 at 11:59:59 pm BST (GMT +1). Funds for successful applications are expected to be disbursed by December 31st 2026.

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Research areas

Priority research areas

Environmental and ecological impacts of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE)

Objective: Use field trials to generate empirical evidence demonstrating the potential environmental and/or ecological impacts and co-benefits of OAE, with the aim of establishing operational frameworks and community support.

The fundamental inorganic chemistry of OAE is well-established. Environmental and biological responses to localized pH shifts, carbonate chemistry, and mineral dissolution are used to define the guardrails for deployment. These same responses could offer co-benefits to deployment of OAE, but the empirical evidence for co-benefits is still developing. In particular, while there is a substantial body of literature that examines co-benefits in laboratory and mesocosm experiments, there is a clear need for field evidence tracking chemical thresholds and impacts on sensitive habitats in-situ.

This research area targets an expansion of the evidence for the impacts and co-benefits of OAE, with an emphasis on well-designed field trials over additional standalone mesocosm studies. Proposals should focus on observations that provide actionable insights for future OAE deployments, and outcomes may include: peer-reviewed publication(s) detailing the environmental and/or ecological impacts of OAE; standardized baseline and monitoring datasets, models, or frameworks.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Assessing the scaling potential of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE)

Objective: Evaluate the capacity of ocean alkalinity enhancement to scale beyond coastal outfalls while upholding environmental and ecosystem safety.

OAE is a promising pathway for high-certainty, scaled carbon dioxide removal. Its ultimate scale will depend on factors including the chemical thresholds associated with carbonate chemistry, physical ocean mixing dynamics, and the deployment approach. Current OAE deployments are concentrated around a limited number of coastal sites. While academic literature has modeled the theoretical global capacity of ocean liming, the interaction of regional ocean chemistry, ocean mixing, and deployment approaches (and their effect on capacity) remain an open question.

This research area prioritizes theoretical assessments or early-stage R&D to evaluate how key regional conditions and deployment approaches affect the scale capacity of OAE, and may in turn be optimized to enable high carbon removal efficiency while upholding the highest standards for ecosystem and environmental safety. Outcomes may include: theoretical evaluations of the regional carbon removal potential of OAE, including via novel alkalinity dispersal mechanisms; benchtop prototypes for novel alkalinity production or dispersal systems; detailed physical models to characterize alkalinity dispersal at regional scale.

Funding of up to $400,000 is available for a single research project.

Next-generation CO2 capture systems for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) facilities

Objective: Accelerate the integration of advanced CO2 capture systems into power-only BECCS systems to reduce the energy intensity and cost of carbon capture.

BECCS is a high-potential pathway for scaled carbon removal, but the energy intensity and operational costs of the CO2 capture step remain relatively high. Current facilities typically rely on mature liquid amine solvents, which are water-heavy and require substantial thermal energy for regeneration, establishing an operational cost floor. Second-generation solid sorbents or Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have the potential to significantly reduce this regeneration energy penalty while avoiding continuous solvent degradation. However, while these materials are widely documented in laboratory settings, their performance and durability under the specific flue gas chemistry and operational environment of biomass combustion requires further evaluation.

This research area prioritizes R&D to move advanced capture materials from theory or idealized conditions into operation under representative conditions. Proposals should focus on derisking these materials against real-world combustion challenges, such as high moisture, high alkali content, heat integration, and high-flow pressure drops. Outcomes may include: scoping and techno-economic assessments for advanced capture systems that are viable under operational plant conditions; operational pilot data or benchtop validation demonstrating performance on live biomass flue gas; detailed characterizations of material durability under continuous biomass combustion flows.

Funding of up to $400,000 is available for a single research project.

Unlocking underutilized biomass feedstocks to scale biochar carbon removal

Objective: Address the technical challenges of producing high-quality biochar from heterogeneous, high-moisture and/or distributed organic wastes to unlock novel sources of sustainable biomass for carbon removal.

Biochar production has considerable potential to achieve scaled carbon removal via pyrolysis of sustainable biomass. However, current pyrolysis systems are typically optimized for homogenous, low-moisture woody biomass, such as agricultural and forestry residues. This means that heterogeneous and/or high-moisture organic wastes are underutilized, in turn limiting the scale of carbon removal.

These underutilized feedstocks, including municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, and non-woody crop residues, are more challenging to process because they frequently contain high levels of moisture, ash, metals, and volatile contaminants that can foul pyrolysis equipment or alter the physical stability of the resulting biochar. In addition, they are frequently derived from more distributed sources, which makes scaled and low-cost processing more challenging.

This research area prioritizes the innovations required to scale the use of underutilized feedstocks in biochar production. Proposals should focus on innovations in feedstock preprocessing or pyrolysis, or in scaled processing of distributed feedstocks, and will ideally also use advanced aging or reflectance techniques to confirm the long-term carbon permanence of any biochar derived from the feedstocks considered. Outcomes may include: techno-economic and life-cycle assessments evaluating the viability of underutilized feedstocks for scaled biochar carbon removal; bench-scale to pilot-scale pyrolysis data demonstrating the performance of biochar production from underutilized feedstocks.

Note that any feedstock considered must be eligible under Isometric’s Biomass Feedstock Accounting Module v1.3.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Improving the resilience of mangrove restoration to sea-level rise

Objective: Advance predictive modeling and management strategies to ensure restored mangrove ecosystems can adapt to sea-level rise and maintain long-term carbon sequestration.

Mangrove ecosystems can be highly effective blue carbon sinks. However, if sea levels rise faster than mangroves can accumulate sediment vertically, or if coastal infrastructure blocks their natural landward migration, these ecosystems risk drowning and reverting into carbon sources. This places current and future restoration projects at risk of long-term mortality rates, and contributes to uncertainty in carbon removal permanence.

This research area prioritizes innovations that enable the resilience of mangrove ecosystems to sea-level rise to be predicted prior to, and/or actively managed during, restoration projects. Proposals should focus on the interactions between changing geomorphological, hydrological, and salinity regimes (including where influenced by coastal infrastructure), ecological survival metrics, and carbon removal durability. Outcomes may include: site-selection frameworks to identify coastal zones capable of sustaining mangrove carbon sequestration under multi-decadal sea-level rise scenarios; use of field-scale data to evaluate the efficacy of sediment-enhancement techniques or landward migration strategies in maintaining ecosystem and carbon stability.

Funding of up to $350,000 is available for a single research project.

Optimizing land use in nature-based carbon removal projects

Objective: Evaluate how land marginality and productivity impact leakage, additionality, and durability in nature-based carbon removal projects, and use this to design projects that optimize land use for carbon removal efficiency and ecosystem integrity.

Nature-based carbon removal pathways, including reforestation, agroforestry, and mangrove restoration, are frequently subject to accounting discounts due to activity-shifting or market leakage. An emerging strategy to avoid these discounts, and thereby optimize carbon removal efficiency, is to enhance the economic or agricultural productivity of the project area. However, trade-offs between land productivity and leakage are highly scale-dependent and location-specific, and also influence additionality, durability, and ecosystem integrity.

Achieving effective land-use optimization requires an understanding of land marginality (the spatial and temporal opportunity cost of land), which is shaped by interactions between yield and productivity, the biosphere and climate, and land tenure and infrastructure. Agroforestry — where project implementation can actively enhance agricultural yields — is a primary example of land-use optimization. However, the same principle applies to reforestation and mangrove restoration projects that incorporate the long-term production of non-timber forest products alongside ecosystem recovery. This creates a continuous spectrum of land-use possibilities within nature-based carbon removal projects, ranging from intensive land-sharing models (like agroforestry) to land-sparing systems (like pure reforestation), with various co-productive states in between.

This research area targets an analysis of how land marginality behaves across space and time and, by extension, how different positions along the land-productivity spectrum impact leakage, additionality, and durability. This work could ultimately enable nature-based carbon removal projects to be optimized for carbon removal efficiency and ecosystem integrity. Outcomes may include: a peer-reviewed study evaluating how spatial-temporal land marginality drives trade-offs between leakage, additionality, and durability; a framework for optimizing project design across the spectrum of land-use possibilities; an initial design of an open-access tool that uses spatial data (e.g., on yield and productivity, the biosphere and climate, and land tenure and infrastructure) to inform project design.

Funding of up to $400,000 is available for a single research project.

Addressing the energetic challenges of low-concentration CO2 capture

Objective: Validate novel capture materials with the potential to circumvent the high cost and/or high energy intensity of low-concentration CO2 capture, prioritizing the scaled use of intermittent low-grade heat or a breakthrough advancement in the second-law thermodynamic efficiency of CO2 separation.

Capturing CO2 at low or atmospheric concentrations faces a steep thermodynamic barrier due to the theoretical minimum separation work. At the second-law efficiency of currently-deployed technologies, this results in a high energy intensity that in turn raises challenges for the levelized cost of capture and availability of appropriate renewable energy sources.

This research area targets the development and testing of novel technologies with the potential to fundamentally alter capture energetics at low or atmospheric concentrations, either by accessing low-cost energy sources for which scaled use would not compete directly with grid decarbonization (e.g., intermittent low-grade heat), or by achieving a breakthrough in second-law efficiency that substantially lowers energy intensity relative to the current best-in-class.

Proposals are likely to focus on benchtop- to pilot-scale validation of the performance metrics of these novel technologies, and include a credible roadmap for scaling beyond a pilot should the validation be successful. Outcomes are likely to include: peer-reviewed data validating technology performance at benchtop- to pilot-scale; a credible techno-economic assessment of technology performance beyond pilot scale.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Abatement of methane in diffuse emission streams

Objective: Accelerate the development of photochemical, photocatalytic or thermocatalytic oxidation systems for abating dilute, low-concentration diffuse methane emissions.

Scaling systems that can oxidise methane in highly dilute (< ~2%) streams, such as ventilation air methane, dairy barn exhaust, and fugitive landfill gas is a primary bottleneck in the abatement of diffuse methane emissions. Current industrial thermal and thermocatalytic oxidation methods are limited by prohibitive energy penalties and heavy capital costs at methane concentrations below ~1 to 2%. More novel photochemical, photocatalytic or thermocatalytic mechanisms are promising, but moving beyond laboratory conditions requires systems that can operate under more complex real-world environments.

This research area prioritizes benchtop validation of novel photochemical, photocatalytic or thermocatalytic systems under representative operational conditions, addressing real-world challenges including in quantum yield, mass-transfer, and/or catalyst deactivation. Outcomes may include: a benchtop proof-of-concept of a novel photochemical, photocatalytic or thermocatalytic reactor; detailed techno-economic assessment of the viability of novel solution(s).

Funding of up to $500,000 is available for a single research project.

Improve constraints on methane lifetime in the atmosphere and its underlying removal mechanisms

Research area scoped in collaboration with Spark Climate Solutions.

Objective: Resolve uncertainties in the relationship between atmospheric oxidation capacity and methane lifetime, and thereby refine constraints on methane lifetime.

Methane is a potent short-lived climate pollutant and is responsible for around 30% (~0.5°C) of global warming since the preindustrial era. The lifetime of methane in the atmosphere is a key control on climate outcomes, and is also highly relevant in determining the impact of methane emissions abatement relative to other categories of emissions abatement.

The lifetime of methane in the atmosphere is primarily determined by the atmospheric oxidation capacity, including both the hydroxyl and chlorine radicals. This complex, nonlinear chemistry is a foundational driver of climate, air quality, and ecosystem health, yet remains poorly understood. By extension, there is high uncertainty associated with the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere, the underlying removal mechanisms, and their interaction with a changing atmosphere.

This research area aims to improve constraints on the lifetime of methane in the atmosphere and the underlying removal mechanisms. A particular emphasis is placed on using open datasets in which there are considerable existing observations that could advance understanding of atmospheric oxidation capacity and better characterize poorly understood or undiscovered methane-removal mechanisms. Outcomes are likely to include a peer-reviewed study that refines regional or global methane lifetime constraints based on an improved characterization of the underlying removal mechanisms.

Funding of up to $500,000 is available for a single research project.

Optimizing the climate impact of carbon removal through tidal wetland restoration

Research area scoped in collaboration with Spark Climate Solutions.

Objective: Develop frameworks for tidal wetland restoration that optimize for the scale and permanence of carbon sequestration while minimizing methane emissions.

Tidal wetlands, including salt marshes and brackish mangroves, are major blue carbon sinks. The restoration of tidal wetlands is therefore a key target for nature-based carbon removal. However, wetland restoration can also affect emissions of methane (CH4), a potent short-lived climate pollutant. Methane fluxes from tidal wetlands are highly variable across space and time and are influenced by shifting tidal hydrology, micro-topography, nutrient loading, and seasonal temperature fluctuations. The specific design of a restoration project may significantly influence its greenhouse gas balance across time, and by extension its net climate benefit.

This research area targets the development of frameworks that optimize the design of tidal wetland restoration projects for greenhouse gas outcomes, including (at minimum) methane emissions and long-term carbon storage. Proposals are likely to use observations of dynamic methane emissions in tidal wetland restoration projects, particularly during transitional restoration phases, to develop a mechanistic understanding of greenhouse gas balances that can in turn be used to inform future project design. Outcomes may include: a peer-reviewed study of dynamic greenhouse gas accounting in tidal wetland restoration; a mechanism-grounded framework to help project developers optimize restoration for net climate benefit.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) for open-system landfill interventions

Objective: Develop and/or validate methane emissions models at small-scale landfill systems, enabling these models to be incorporated into standardized MRV methodologies for open-system interventions.

Municipal solid waste landfills are a significant source of global anthropogenic methane (CH₄) emissions. Open-system landfill interventions, such as methane-oxidizing biocovers, biofilters, and enhanced soil respiration layers, offer a cost-effective pathway to intercept and mitigate these emissions before they reach the atmosphere. Such interventions can be particularly impactful at small, old, or unmanaged waste sites where gas collection and control systems (GCCS) are not viable, but can also serve as an effective complement to GCCS at larger sites. Several existing models can simulate landfill gas transport and microbial oxidation within soil matrices but, in order to be incorporated into MRV methodologies or regulatory frameworks, these models require validation against field observations.

This research area targets the development and validation of such models. Proposals are likely to focus on deploying local instrumentation arrays, such as automated flux chambers, soil gas probes, or continuous near-surface analyzers, to capture the high-resolution observations from small-scale landfill systems required for model development and validation. Project outcomes are likely to include a peer-reviewed model validation study, including uncertainty characterization, that provides a basis for quantifying methane emissions destruction through open-system interventions at small-scale sites.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Development, field validation, and climate impact verification of perennial crop systems

Research area led by Google Climate & Sustainability.

Objective: Advance the genetic development, field-scale agronomy, and empirical carbon and emissions accounting of perennial grains, oilseeds, and pulse crops to enable scalable, high-certainty agricultural climate mitigation.

Perennial crops, such as perennial rice, wheat grasses and oilseeds, represent a transformative pathway for scalable carbon removal and agricultural decarbonization. Unlike annual crops that require continuous tillage and re-seeding, perennials establish extensive root systems reaching up to three meters in depth, fixing carbon deep into the soil profile. Furthermore, perennial agricultural systems offer substantial secondary climate and energy co-benefits, including drastic reductions in synthetic nitrogen fertilizers (reducing energy use in their production and avoiding N2O emissions from soils), reduced pesticide and irrigation requirements, and the elimination of annual fuel-intensive tillage. However, realizing the global climate potential of perennial agriculture requires addressing critical R&D bottlenecks across the entire developmental pipeline — from slow breeding cycles and yield parity challenges to uncertainties in deep-soil carbon dynamics, long-term permanence, and standardized monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV).

This research area prioritizes R&D projects that advance the science, viability, or quantification of perennial cropping systems, encompassing work from early-stage crop engineering to field-scale trials. Proposals may target genetic or agronomic advancements for emerging or newly domesticated perennial candidates, field trials evaluating environmental and ecological impacts under representative operational conditions, or the development of empirical measurement frameworks for carbon and greenhouse gas dynamics. Outcomes may include: peer-reviewed publications, genomic, breeding, or field-trial datasets demonstrating yield optimization and root biomass expansion; standardized MRV frameworks and predictive models for deep-soil carbon accumulation and stabilization; or comprehensive life-cycle and techno-economic assessments quantifying net greenhouse gas flux reductions (including N2O, CO2, and operational energy savings) in commercial-scale perennial deployments.

Funding of up to $400,000 is available for up to two research projects, for a combined total of up to $800,000.

Open call

Breakthroughs in carbon removal and superpollutant abatement

Objective: Achieve step-change advancements in the certainty, scale, or affordability of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) or superpollutant abatement, or in the quantification of their climate impact.

This open call welcomes proposals that address critical bottlenecks in either carbon dioxide removal or the abatement of superpollutants, including methane, nitrous oxide, ozone-depleting substances, or fluorinated gases. Proposals are likely to focus on breakthroughs in the certainty of fundamental science, the certainty of monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), or the long-term scale or affordability of a given carbon removal or superpollutant pathway. Proposals may also target modeling or analytical innovations that improve quantification of the climate impact of specific interventions (for example, the magnitude or timing of temperature impact).

Successful applications must provide a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis demonstrating why the proposed work is technically feasible and additive to existing R&D efforts. Outcomes of the research are likely to include peer-reviewed datasets or analyses, or publicly-accessible technological innovations.

Funding of up to $450,000 is available for a single research project.

Eligibility criteria

Applications are open to individuals at universities, research institutions, non-profit organizations, social enterprises or businesses focussed on advancing research or innovation. Individuals from businesses, non-profit organizations, or social enterprises should have a comparable level of experience in R&D to a researcher at a university or research institution. In all cases, applicants are expected to have a clear record of community engagement and open science.

Eligible projects include anything under the broad scope of Research and Development (R&D), including but not limited to: theoretical, laboratory or field-based academic research; literature review or meta-analysis (where this clearly meets the stated objectives of a priority research area); engineering research or prototyping; a data or modelling study. READ MORE