Global Funding & Grant Opportunities for Israeli Data/AI Innovation

EU Programs (sorted by deadline)

1. EIC Accelerator -️open 

• Body: European Innovation Council 

• Funds: Close-to-market deep-tech/AI startups (TRL 6-8) 

• Eligibility: Solo companies only (no consortium needed), must already have a near-market product (TRL 6-8). Israel is fully eligible. Best for later-stage Israeli startups ready to scale.
  Source: EIC Accelerator eligibility page  

• Funding: Grant up to €2.5M, or blended finance up to ~€17.5M; 2026 total budget €634M 

• Deadline: 2 Sep 2026, also 4 Nov 2026 

• Link: EIC Accelerator 

2. Horizon Europe — Cluster 4 ”Digital, Industry and Space”

• Body/Region: European Commission (via HaDEA) 

• Funds: Collaborative multi-country R&D — AI, data tech, robotics, microelectronics, advanced manufacturing 

• Eligibility: Requires a consortium of at least 3 independent organizations from 3 different eligible countries. Israel is eligible as an associated country under its own EU Association Agreement.  

Best fit: startups or research teams that already have, or can build, a multi-country consortium(3 organizations from 3 countries, at least one an EU Member State) working in AI, data tech, robotics, microelectronics, or advanced manufacturing, not solo applicants.
Source: Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science — Who can participate in Horizon Europe? (see “International Consortia” section), Cluster 4 page 

• Funding: Equity-free grants; consortium calls range from tens of millions to ~€125M pooled per call 

• Deadline: Space call closes 3 Sep 2026; Clean Industrial Deal call (€125M) closes 15 Sep 2026 

• Link: Cluster 4 official page 

3. EIC Pathfinder & EIC Transition

• Body/Region: European Innovation Council (Horizon Europe Pillar 3) 

• Funds: Pathfinder = early breakthrough deep-tech research (TRL 1-4); Transition = maturing lab results toward market (TRL 4-6) 

• Eligibility: Best fit: Pathfinder suits early-stage research teams (TRL 1-4), with just an idea or early prototype, no working product yet; Transition suits teams that already have lab-tested results (TRL 4) and want to turn them into a market-ready product (TRL 6). Israel fully eligible for both.
  Source: EIC Pathfinder / EIC Transition 

• Funding: Pathfinder Challenges budget €96M; EIC Transition budget €100M, up to €2.5M/project + €50K booster 

• Deadline: EIC Transition 16 Sep 2026; Pathfinder Challenges 28 Oct 2026 

• Link: EIC Pathfinder | EIC Transition 

4. Chips Joint Undertaking

• Body/Region: EU/member-states/associated-states/industry JU 

• Funds: Semiconductor R&D — AI hardware, edge compute, data infrastructure 

• Eligibility: Requires a multi-partner consortium from several participating countries, solo applications are not allowed. Israel is explicitly named as a Chips JU Participating State. Best for hardware/semiconductor-focused startups and R&D consortia.
  Source: EUACC — Chips Joint Undertaking: Funding, Eligibility & How to Apply 

• Funding: 5 open calls, combined worth >€300M 

• Deadline: 16-17 Sep 2026 

• Link: Chips JU 

5. EIT Digital / EIT Health — no fixed deadline

• Body/Region: EIT, via sector Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) 

• Funds: Innovation/commercialization support, entrepreneurship, open innovation calls 

• Eligibility: Not a partnership requirement, you apply directly to the individual KIC’s open call (not to EIT centrally), typically for projects already at TRL 4-8 (lab-validated through near-market), not early-stage research. Israel is eligible, but is explicitly excluded from the “Regional Innovation Scheme” (RIS) preferential category due to its mature startup ecosystem, so Israeli applicants compete on general/non-reserved terms, not with reserved funding slots. 

Best fit: startups whose technology is already at TRL 4-8 (lab-validated through near-market) looking to commercialize or scale, not early-stage research at TRL 1-3, which euacc.ai says should go to EIC Pathfinder instead.
Source: EUACC — EIT and its KICs: Funding, Eligibility & How to Apply 

• Link: EIT Hub Israel 

6. AI Factories / GenAI4EU — no fixed single deadline

• Body/Region: EuroHPC JU + European Commission 

• Funds: Access to AI-optimized supercomputing, plus generative-AI application funding 

• Eligibility: Israel can access AI Factories (Europe’s AI supercomputers), since Israel officially joined the EuroHPC. For actual funding through GenAI4EU, Israel is generally eligible too, but the money comes from three different EU funding pots, and one of them (Digital Europe Programme) is usually more restrictive about which countries qualify than the others. So: compute access is a solid yes, funding eligibility should just be double-checked per specific call. 

Best fit: startups or research teams that need large-scale AI compute power to train or run models, or teams building generative-AI products specifically, matching GenAI4EU’s stated focus on ”generative AI made in Europe.”
Source: EuroHPC JU — Israel joins EuroHPC Joint Undertaking + European Commission — GenAI4EU 

• Funding: GenAI4EU budget ~€700M; AI Factories envelope €10bn 

• Link: AI Factories / AI Continent Action Plan 

1. Bilateral & Multilateral Israeli Innovation Funds (sorted by deadline)
2. 1. EUREKA /Eurostars —⚠️ member, but no allocated budget 

• Body: Pan-European intergovernmental network (45+ countries) 

• Funds: Bottom-up, any-sector collaborative R&D between 2+ member countries 

• Eligibility: Open to any-sector Israeli SMEs, but requires forming a consortium with at least one partner in another Eurostars member country (45+ eligible, including non-EU members like Switzerland and Turkey). Critically, Israel currently has no allocated national budget for this program, confirmed directly on Eureka’s own Israel page, so participation would currently need to be self-funded on the Israeli side. 

Source: Eureka Network — Israel 

• Funding caveat: No allocated Israeli national budget for Call 10 (passed), Call 11 (Sep 2026), or Call 12 (Mar 2027) 

• Deadline: Call 11, Sep 2026 (exact date not published) 

2. BSF + NSF-BSF Joint Research Grants (Israel-U.S., academic route)

• Body: U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, jointly with NSF 

• Funds: Academic/basic research. NSF-BSF runs 27 joint programs across all scientific fields, the ones relevant to data/AI/computer science are: Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), Computer Networks and Systems (CNS), Information and Intelligence Systems (IIS), Cyber Security and Privacy, Foundational Research in Robotics, and Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) 

• Eligibility: Only open to academic or research-institution-based principal investigators, not commercial startups or companies. Requires an Israeli PI paired with a required U.S. co-PI, both affiliated with recognized research institutions. 

Source: BSF — NSF-BSF Research Grants: The Programs 

• Funding: Israeli PI up to $114K/year (experimental) or $94K/year (theoretical/computational), for 2-5 years 

• Deadline: All CS/AI-relevant tracks listed above are open all year, with no fixed deadline (rolling submissions) 

• Link: BSF — NSF-BSF Research Grants: The Programs 

C. International Foundations 

1. Sloan Foundation — Exploratory Grantmaking in Technology (AI-in-science) — rolling, no fixed deadline

• Body: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 

• Funds: AI-for-science / research automation 

• Eligibility: No explicit country restriction found; rolling 2-page Letter of Inquiry. Best fit: academic/nonprofit research teams working on AI-for-science tools, not typical commercial startups. 

• Funding: Typically $100K-$400K 

• Link: sloan.org 

D. Global Prizes & Challenges 

1. Build with Gemini XPRIZE

• Body: XPRIZE Foundation, backed by Google 

• Funds: AI-native product/business building, 5 tracks 

• Eligibility: Open to Individuals who are at least the age of majority where they reside as of the time of entry and small organizations with less than 25 employees — including corporations, not-for-profit corporations and other nonprofit organizations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and other legal entities — that exist and have been organized or incorporated at the time of entry. No partner required, Israel fully eligible.  

Best fit: small or early-stage teams only, eligibility is explicitly capped at organizations with fewer than 25 employees, building an AI-native product across the 5 competition tracks. 

• Funding: $2M total pool ($500K grand prize down to $50K category prizes), equity-free 

• Deadline: Build period through 17 Aug 2026; finals ~25 Sep 2026 

• Link: geminixprize.com/rules 

TIER 2 — Watchlist (currently closed, real programs — worth monitoring, not applying to today) 

• KORIL-RDF (Korea-Israel) — the most explicitly AI-branded bilateral fund found (AI-in-Manufacturing “Lighthouse,” up to $3M). Just closed 8 Jul 2026, no new cycle announced yet — watch koril-rdf.or.kr / IIA. 

• I4F (India-Israel) — $40M fund, Smart Mobility theme. Both 2026 calls (CFP14, CFP15) closed; next cycle typically ~twice yearly — watch i4f.org. 

• MIT Solve — Global Challenges and “AI for a Better World” both closed for 2026; next Global Challenges round stated to launch September 2026 — solve.mit.edu. 

• AI for Good Innovation Factory (ITU) — 2026 cycle concluded at the Geneva summit (7-10 Jul 2026, winner: Nearpays); no 2027 call published yet — aiforgood.itu.int. 

• Google.org Impact Challenges — both $30M AI tracks (Government Innovation, AI for Science) closed (Apr/May 2026); $60M total commitment, watch for the next round — google.org/impact-challenges. 

• JST ARiSE (Japan) — “AI to Redesign Scientific Exploration.” Call closed 30 Jun 2026, in review through Sep, includes an international collaboration track worth watching for the next cycle — jst.go.jp. 

• Philanthropy (Coefficient Giving, CZI, Gates Grand Challenges) — nothing AI-relevant currently open across any of these three. Coefficient Giving’s Technical AI Safety RFP has been closed since mid-2025 with no reopening announced; CZI’s Ben Barres and Imaging Scientists RFAs are effectively dormant (closed since 2023 and 2020 respectively, no signs of a next cycle — this isn’t “awaiting a round,” it’s inactive); Gates’ AI-specific Grand Challenge closed Apr 2026. Recommend a periodic check rather than treating any of these as a pipeline. 

• CIIRDF (Canada-Israel) — organization still exists but no confirmed open call found and its official site was unreachable for verification; contact directly if a Canada angle is relevant. 

Summary: Top opportunities to highlight 

1. Build with Gemini XPRIZE — deadline 17 Aug 2026, nearest actionable deadline 

1. EIC Accelerator — deadline 2 Sep 2026, largest single-project funding, flagged for political risk 

1. Horizon Europe Cluster 4 / EIC Transition / Chips JU — mid-September deadline cluster, stable, largest-scale grants 

1. BSF/NSF-BSF — academic-route teams, exact next deadline needs confirming