The Navigation Fund: AI for Open Science

Funding is available to researchers worldwide to support innovative applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for open science across disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics and materials science. 

The Navigation Fund is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation whose mission is to advance solutions for major world issues. The Fund provides grants to organisations working in its specific focus areas: open science; farm animal welfare; transforming criminal justice; digital sentience; and climate change.

The Fund is providing support for projects with the intention of accelerating scientific discovery through innovative applications of artificial intelligence (AI) for open science. The programme invites applications for the development of open science infrastructure and tools that leverage AI to improve the efficiency and transparency of science. Projects should aim to:

• Apply AI in practical ways to improve scientific workflows, metadata enrichment, data reuse, knowledge discovery or research processes.
• Develop open and extensible bookmarks for open science AI workflows.
• Serve a well-defined audience within the scientific community that is read to adopt and benefit from the solution.
• Demonstrate the potential to accelerate research and address pressing challenges in scientific practices.
• Embody open science principles, delivering benefits to the broader research ecosystem.

Establishing a partnership with an existing entity such as a data repository, scientific society or other widely used resources (eg PubMed), would be viewed positively.

Priority will be awarded to proposals that strengthen transparency and trust in science through the ethical use of AI. Of particular interest are AI tools that augment human capabilities (eg applications supporting peer review, improving metadata quality, aiding knowledge discovery etc).

Proposals are welcome across a range of disciplines, including: biology; chemistry; physics; materials science; and related fields where AI-powered infrastructure can reduce friction and enhance collaboration.

Supported projects must commit to making the work open and widely available.