• Google is offering research awards of up to $500,000 per project across carbon removal and superpollutant mitigation, with one perennial agriculture category offering up to $800,000 across two projects.
• Priority areas include ocean alkalinity enhancement, BECCS, biochar, methane abatement, blue carbon, low-concentration CO2 capture and climate-focused agriculture.
• Applications close September 25, 2026, with successful projects expected to receive funding by the end of the year.

Google has opened applications for its 2026 Carbon Removal and Superpollutant Elimination R&D Awards. The program targets scientific and engineering barriers holding back large-scale climate mitigation.

The awards focus on two challenges: increasing certainty around climate impact and expanding technologies toward commercial or climate-relevant scale. Google is targeting gigatonne-scale potential for carbon dioxide removal and megatonne-scale potential for superpollutant abatement.

Funding spans laboratory work, field trials, engineering prototypes, modelling and data analysis. Universities, research institutions, nonprofits, social enterprises and eligible businesses can apply.

Ocean carbon removal moves toward field testing

Two priority areas focus on ocean alkalinity enhancement. The approach increases seawater alkalinity to draw additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Google is offering up to $450,000 for a project examining OAE’s environmental and ecological impacts. The company is prioritizing field trials that can test chemical thresholds and effects on sensitive habitats.

A separate award of up to $400,000 will examine whether OAE can move beyond today’s concentration of coastal deployments. Research could assess regional chemistry, ocean mixing and new alkalinity dispersal systems.

The focus on field evidence reflects a wider challenge facing emerging carbon removal markets. Technologies need credible measurement and environmental safeguards before developers can deploy them at materially larger scales.

Funding targets harder-to-scale carbon technologies

Google will also fund research into next-generation CO2 capture systems for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. Up to $400,000 is available for work that could reduce the energy and operating costs of carbon capture.

Projects may test solid sorbents or metal-organic frameworks under real biomass combustion conditions. The goal is to move advanced materials beyond idealized laboratory environments.

Biochar is another target. Google wants researchers to address difficulties in processing underused biomass sources, including municipal waste, sewage sludge and non-woody crop residues.

Nature-based removal also features prominently. Up to $350,000 is available for research into protecting restored mangroves from sea-level rise. Another $400,000 award will study how land use affects leakage, additionality and durability across reforestation, agroforestry and mangrove projects.

Google is also offering up to $450,000 to investigate novel approaches to low-concentration CO2 capture. Projects must address the high energy requirements that continue to constrain direct air capture and related technologies.

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Methane research gains a larger role

Several awards focus on methane, one of the most important short-lived climate pollutants.

Up to $500,000 is available for technologies designed to oxidize methane in highly dilute emission streams. Potential applications include ventilation air methane, dairy barn exhaust and fugitive landfill emissions.

A second $500,000 research area, developed with Spark Climate Solutions, will examine uncertainties around methane’s atmospheric lifetime and removal mechanisms.

Google is also offering up to $450,000 for research into tidal wetland restoration that balances long-term carbon storage against methane emissions. Another $450,000 opportunity targets monitoring, reporting and verification for open-system landfill interventions.

These projects place MRV at the centre of climate technology development. Better measurement could influence carbon credit quality, regulatory acceptance and investor confidence in emerging mitigation pathways.

Agriculture enters the carbon removal R&D pipeline

Google Climate & Sustainability is separately leading a research area focused on perennial grains, oilseeds and pulse crops.

Up to two projects can receive a combined $800,000. Research may cover crop genetics, field-scale agronomy, deep-soil carbon storage and standardized greenhouse gas accounting.

Perennial crops could reduce tillage, fertilizer, irrigation and pesticide demand while storing carbon through deeper root systems. However, uncertainties remain around yields, permanence and measurement.

Google has also created an open call offering up to $450,000 for research outside its defined priority areas. Proposals must deliver material advances in the certainty, scale or affordability of carbon removal or superpollutant abatement.

Applications close at 11:59:59 p.m. BST on September 25. Funds for successful applications are expected to be distributed by December 31, 2026.

For companies and investors building carbon removal portfolios, the program points to where technical risk remains concentrated. Scaling the sector will depend not only on capital and procurement demand, but also on stronger science, credible MRV and evidence that emerging solutions can operate safely at climate-relevant scale.