The International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), an organization under the auspices of UNESCO, and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) today announced that applications are now open for the 2025 Compute for Climate Fellowship, a global program that fully funds research and development (R&D) projects from startups using advanced cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new solutions designed to help fight climate change.
This year, the program is expanding to select 20 startups from around the world to get their proof-of-concepts built for free—up from eight in 2024 and four in 2023—with mentorship of AWS and IRCAI’s experts.
“It wasn’t simple, but we managed to supercharge the startups with both resources and knowledge, and now we are taking it even further,” said Davor Orlic, Chief Operating Officer of IRCAI. “By expanding the Compute for Climate Fellowship, we are not only increasing the number of selected startups but also broadening the scope of climate solutions they can tackle, and the applicability of AI in the climate space. Innovation happens when bold ideas meet the right support, and we are committed to providing that foundation to drive real environmental impact.”
“With the effects of the climate crisis intensifying, it is imperative that we support the development of a broad set of approaches to bring new climate solutions to life—that’s why we are expanding the scope of the Compute for Climate Fellowship to accept a larger number of startups, ” said Lisbeth Kaufman, Head of Climate Tech Startups Business Development at AWS. “From fusion energy, to smarter grids, to generative AI models to discover climate resilient plants, and deep-sea drones to map the ocean, we’ve seen how advanced cloud computing and AI can unlock new possibilities for a more sustainable future. We are doubling down in 2025, and providing more visionary founders the resources and mentorship they need to turn bold ideas into lasting impact”.
Applications for the 2025 Compute for Climate Fellowship will be open from March 4 until April 6, 2025. Climate tech startups, entrepreneurs, and researchers from around the world are welcome to submit ideas that leverage advanced computing technologies to address climate change mitigation or adaptation. In addition to the eight focus areas the fellowship has covered in the past—clean energy, low carbon transportation, sustainable agriculture and food, circular economy (industry and manufacturing), sustainable buildings, greenhouse gas management, carbon removal, and environment and climate risk (water, pollution, and biodiversity)—this year, the program is also expanding the scope of proposals to cover a new key area: Indigenous solutions to the climate crisis.
Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. At the same time, they often have holistic understanding of ecosystems and ancestral knowledge of harmonious practices of coexistence with nature and biodiversity, which makes the uniquely positioned to create innovative solutions to climate issues. The fellowship recognizes indigenous people as leaders in addressing the climate crisis and will support innovators in these communities in its 2025 cohort.
Startups selected to participate in the Compute for Climate Fellowship, will receive funding, technical resources, mentorship, and access to both AWS technologies and IRCAI’s research capabilities in order to build their proof of concepts (POCs). This time, AWS will offer up to $4 million in AWS credits to support the build of selected POCs through the Compute for Climate Fellowship. The selection process will prioritize projects that can be completed in 2-3 months, think big, and offer potential for significant environmental benefits, scalability and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Lasting Impact Around the Globe
Among the 12 tech-forward startups that have participated in the Compute for Climate Fellowship since its launch in 2023 is RealtaFusion, a startups incubated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has built a fusion energy device that achieved a world record-breaking plasma generation last year—an incredible milestone in harnessing nuclear fusion as a new source of clean energy. “The Compute for Climate Fellowship has helped us accelerate the development of a first-of-its-kind plasma stability simulation, which had never been done in the cloud before the program,” said Kieran Furlong, CEO and Co-Founder of Realta Fusion. “Only a handful of supercomputers in the world are able to handle these simulations and the ones available to us had a long waitlist. The fellowship significantly accelerated our research and development.”
Based out of France, the startup Cosma is using underwater micro-drones and AI to deliver scalable, cost-effective environmental surveys for sustainable ocean management, providing high-resolution data for offshore energy and environmental consulting projects. “In addition to interacting with talented AI innovators from across the globe, the Compute for Climate Fellowship provided us with the cloud resources and expertise we needed to develop our first Rare Benthic Species detection algorithm. This proved a game changer in marine biology as it opened the door to quantitative inventory and repeatable monitoring of seabed biocenosis”, said Frédéric Mittaine, CEO and founder of Cosma.
Startups that apply but are not selected to join the program will have access to up to $5,000 in AWS credits through the AWS Activate program, as well as free workshops and training on how to use AWS advanced computing services to build their solutions. They will also be invited to join the IRCAI Industrial Club.
Applications can be submitted here. More information on the 2025 cohort of the Compute for Climate Fellowship can be found here.
