Digital Science Catalyst Grant: Agentic AI for Research

Digital Science is offering a grant of up to £25,000 for innovative technology ideas. The 2026 Catalyst Grant focuses on "Agentic AI Workflows You Can Trust." This grant supports early-stage solutions that build research agents with audit, governance, and provenance. Individuals, startups, or research teams globally can apply for the equity-free award. The deadline for applications is Monday, October 5, 2026. Steve Scott, VP Portfolio Development at Digital Science, notes that AI tools can now act on research, not just describe it. The grant aims to fund builders making AI agents safe for institutions, with built-in accountability. This differs from previous generative AI tools, focusing on agentic workflows that plan, execute, and review multi-step work. Trust means quality and showing the agent's working. Now in its 16th year, the Catalyst Grant supports new software tools and technologies that advance research. This initiative helps early-stage ideas with novel technology use. The grant looks for applications of agentic AI that can benefit any part of the research lifecycle, including trusted authorship, enterprise workflows, and publication processes. This grant could accelerate the development of reliable AI tools for the research community.