Seventeen organizations get $36 million from Google.org – Unite.AI challenge

Google.org announced on October 14, 2026, that 17 organizations will receive a total of $36 million in funding through the Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science, an open-call program supporting projects that apply artificial intelligence to scientific research.

The announcement was written by Maggie Johnson, Global Head and VP of Google.org. The post says the challenge has attracted applications in 30 countries, in fields such as climate, health and fundamental sciences. Johnson framed the awards against what he described as a profound turning point in scientific discovery, with artificial intelligence applied to work ranging from human disease research to environmental prediction. Recipients can choose to participate in a six-month Google.org Accelerator, where they will receive technical support, technical mentorship, and Google infrastructure to develop their ideas into large-scale solutions.

Recipients of healthcare and life sciences

Google’s announcement groups the 17 recipients into the categories of health and life sciences, climate resilience and environmental sciences and describes each organization’s project. In the Health and Life Sciences group, the AITHYRA Research Institute, in collaboration with EPFL, is examining how viruses manipulate cells and is building an AI-designed protein library aimed at discovering therapies for proteins considered non-drug. The Allen Institute is designing DNA sequences to target the brain cell types most vulnerable to neurodegenerative diseases and is openly sharing every pattern, sequence and result. The Australian National University is leading an international collaboration that aims to end trial-and-error chemotherapy and advance equitable precision oncology.

The National University of Singapore is mapping how genetic variants regulate RNA splicing on a population scale, with the stated goal of predicting disease impacts. New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine is applying artificial intelligence to detect different types of DNA damage, work aimed at uncovering unknown causes of mutations. The University of California, Berkeley, is extracting interpretable hypotheses from medical AI models, which the announcement describes as turning black box predictions into clinical biomarkers.

The University of Cape Town is developing an AI-based platform to map genetic variation in African drug-metabolizing genes, an effort that is intended to guide clinical drug choices and improve treatment safety, according to the announcement. The University of Pittsburgh is using a geometric artificial intelligence model to compare heart regeneration between species, looking for genetic switches that could accelerate new heart therapies. The University of Toronto is mapping the peptide drug design space with an AI-based baseline model to support computer-guided therapeutic drug design.

Recipients of climate resilience and environmental sciences

In the climate resilience and environmental sciences group, AfriClimate AI Limited is decoding the atmospheric precursors of deadly storm systems across Africa, with the stated goal of extending flash flood warning times from less than three hours to more than six hours. The Inria Chile Research Center is building what Google describes as a multimodal world ocean foundation model, created as a digital twin of Earth’s marine ecosystems. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is training artificial intelligence agents to autonomously interpret experimental microscopic images to accelerate automated materials discovery.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, in collaboration with TU Eindhoven, is applying physics-based artificial intelligence to model chaotic conditions inside fusion reactors, work that Google describes as bridging the gap between simulation and reality for clean fusion energy. The University of Texas at Austin is developing neural network models intended to accelerate the design of compact fusion reactors. UC San Diego is building an artificial intelligence pipeline designed to discover interpretable climate physics from Earth observations, build a next-generation climate model, and determine where to collect new ocean observations.

The University of Cambridge is combining basic physics models with microscopy to predict cathode degradation, an effort to speed up the development of durable sodium-ion batteries. The University of Washington is designing proteins using natural language to advance sustainability applications such as plastic degradation.

The February Open Call

Google.org launched the challenge on February 18, 2026, describing it as a $30 million global open call. Google said at the time that the initiative would provide catalytic funding and technical expertise to help researchers, nonprofits and social enterprises pursue what it called Nobel-level discoveries, and that it was seeking the next generation of breakthrough scientific discoveries. The call called for projects in the areas of health and life sciences, crisis resilience and environmental sciences, and applications remained open until April 17, 2026. Google also said that the initiative builds on its inaugural AI for Science fund and that selected organizations will have the opportunity to participate in a Google.org Accelerator, an option now extended to the 17 recipients.