North America: funding calls and deadlines closing soon (week of 26 October 2026)

North America: funding calls and deadlines closing soon (week of 26 October 2026)

25 October 2026: Ten calls and rolling programmes are open to US and Canadian technology companies, with deadlines between 2 November 2026 and April 2027, led by Y Combinator's Winter 2027 deadline on 2 November and the National Science Foundation's next small business proposal date on 4 November. Each was read on its funder's own page or its Grants.gov record today; amounts and deadlines are given as the funder states them.

Not yet independently verified. Each call was read on its funder's own page or on its Grants.gov record on 25 October; a few programme pages carry no publication date, and deadlines are given exactly as each page states them. Award sizes for the NIH parent SBIR were not on the pages we read. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Federal small business research money

NSF America's Seed Fund (SBIR/STTR, solicitation NSF 26-510) funds US small businesses working on deep technology across almost every field, from AI and semiconductors to software, wireless and advanced manufacturing. A company first sends a short Project Pitch, which is accepted at any time, and needs an NSF invitation before a full proposal. Phase I pays up to $305,000, Phase II up to $1,250,000 and a combined Fast-Track up to $1,555,555; the fund says it invests up to $2 million "and take[s] zero equity". The next full proposal date is 4 November 2026 at 5 p.m. local time, then 4 March 2027 and 7 July 2027, and the solicitation expects $210 million in awards. Companies holding a pitch invitation issued on or after 3 July 2025 must submit by 4 November.

NIH, CDC and FDA parent SBIR (PA-27-100) is the standing route for US small businesses in health and biomedical work, including digital health and AI tools. The next due date is 5 January 2027, then 5 April 2027.

NSF AI Datasets (NSF 26-512) is one of the few federal AI calls that names companies as lead applicants: "U.S.-based commercial organizations, including small businesses" may submit, alongside non-profits and universities. NSF estimates $100 million in total, and proposals close on 4 November 2026.

Energy and AI for science

ARPA-E UNLOCK SBIR/STTR (DE-FOA-0003631) is for small businesses only, with awards from $323,090 to $4,630,944 and $45 million in total. It opened on 21 October and closes on 20 November 2026. Its subject is getting more out of subsurface resources, so it suits sensing, modelling and automation companies working in that field.

DOE Genesis Mission (DE-FOA-0003612), "Transforming Science and Energy with AI", has unrestricted eligibility, awards of $500,000 to $16 million and $293.76 million in total, and closes on 17 December 2026. Whether a company may lead a bid rather than join one is set out in the full announcement, which we did not read.

State funds

Rhode Island Commerce Innovation Voucher gives Rhode Island small businesses up to $75,000 for research and development. The current round is open "from October 6 to November 3 at 5 p.m. EST".

Connecticut Innovations keeps several investment funds open on a rolling basis, among them a $50 million AI and quantum fund, pre-seed investments of up to $150,000 and venture debt of $1 million to $5 million. The page is undated and lists no deadlines.

Accelerators

Y Combinator Winter 2027: "The deadline to apply on-time is November 2 at 8pm PT", with decisions by 11 December and a batch in San Francisco from January to March. YC still reads applications that arrive later.

Techstars: the spring 2027 programmes, among them Anywhere, New York City, Boston, Chicago, London, USC and Techstars, Baltimore AI Health and Northwestern Medicine Healthcare, have a final deadline of 18 November 2026 and start on 8 March 2027. The Baltimore AI Health programme says it invests $220,000 per company.

Canada

Mitacs Accelerate gives a $15,000 CAD research award for each four- or six-month internship that pairs a company with a university researcher, with the partner company contributing from $7,500; its page names no application deadline. Several federal and provincial programmes were paused or showed every call closed when we read them, including Scale AI's two streams and Alberta Innovates' programmes, so a Canadian company should check each page before planning on it.

For Mexico we found no technology call with a closing date after today; SECIHTI's development and innovation calls closed between April and June 2026. Our Europe edition for this week and UK edition cover calls closing across the EU and UK.

Related on TrustList:

• MassRobotics opens its healthcare robotics catalyst to cohort six
• Korea K-Startup: Silicon Valley go-to-market programme closes 9 October, Super-Gap host organisation call closes 12 October 2026
• Syncrowin raises A$3m led by Collide Capital for industrial AI

Sources

• NSF America's Seed Fund: Solicitations (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• NSF 26-510: SBIR/STTR, Developing Deep Technologies that Advance U.S. Competitiveness and Security, 6 October 2026
• Grants.gov: NSF 26-512, Unlocking Dataset Value for AI-Enabled Scientific Discovery (AI Datasets), 21 July 2026
• Grants.gov: PA-27-100, NIH, CDC and FDA Small Business Innovation Research Grant (Parent SBIR), 28 May 2026
• Grants.gov: DE-FOA-0003631, ARPA-E UNLOCK SBIR/STTR, 21 October 2026
• Grants.gov: DE-FOA-0003612, The Genesis Mission, Transforming Science and Energy with AI, 17 March 2026
• Rhode Island Commerce: Innovation Voucher (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• Connecticut Innovations: Funding opportunities (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• Y Combinator: Apply for Winter 2027 (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• Techstars: Anywhere accelerator (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• Techstars: Baltimore AI Health accelerator (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026
• Mitacs: Accelerate (read 2026-10-25), 25 October 2026