Do you have a promising idea for research that you feel or have been told is unfundable? Have you tried many times to get a collaboration off the ground, only to realise current constraints make it impossible?
Countless promising and feasible ideas for transformative climate research never take off, not because they lack merit, but because they don’t fit the mold of current funding models. They feel too risky to submit or too uncertain to satisfy reviewers’ expectations. These are often invisible from the outside.
This is not a typical open call
We will not fund your research, instead, you can apply for funding the process of turning your “promising but impossible-to-fund ideas” into proposals that can challenge how we fund and organise climate research and action. We’re looking for process-based, relation-based, and place-based ways of researching, not just outcome-driven projects. This is an invitation to think boldly, explore uncertainty, and help shape what funding could become.
How to submit
The submission only requires sending a short audio file. Five selected ideas will receive a small development budget and support to shape their proposal further in co-design sessions that probe the constraints with funders, researchers, policymakers, and other key stakeholders.
About this Call
This open call is part of a design research by Foundation We Are, Jonas Torrens and Mattijs Taanmaan on behalf of KIN. Our aim is to offer valuable insight for funders and research institutions that could help reshape how we fund and support transdisciplinary research, making space for the unpredictable, the collective, and the truly transformative in climate research. This call opens in June 2025.
If you would like to receive a notification as soon as this call opens, sign up via the button below.
