Digital Science has opened applications for its 2026 Catalyst Grant, offering up to £25,000 in equity-free funding for early-stage technology ideas. The programme, now in its 16th year, seeks projects built around agentic AI workflows - systems capable of planning and executing multi-step research tasks autonomously.
Applications close on Monday 5 October 2026. The grant is open to individuals, startups, and research teams worldwide. Applicants do not need to have revenue, a finished product, or a complete business plan. Submissions can range from a working prototype to a well-developed concept, provided they clearly explain the problem being addressed and how the approach fits a trustworthy agentic workflow.
A shift from content generation to task execution
The 2026 theme, "Agentic Workflows You Can Trust," marks a deliberate pivot from the generative AI tools the grant funded in earlier years. Digital Science said the programme reflects how AI tools are moving beyond generating or analysing content toward carrying out complex, multi-step work.
Steve Scott, VP Portfolio Development at Digital Science, said: "AI tools are increasingly able to act on research, not just describe it. The next breakthroughs will come from agentic workflows, autonomous and multi-step, that researchers, institutions and funders can actually rely on."
Scott contrasted this category with earlier generative approaches. "An agentic workflow plans, executes and reviews multi-step work rather than answering a single prompt. Trust in this case means quality rather than detection. An agent that shows its working, not a tool that catches bad actors after the fact."
What Digital Science is looking for
The company identified several areas of particular interest for 2026: trusted authorship and writing tools, enterprise research workflows, decision agents for funding and institutional choices, and trusted publication workflows. The common thread is accountability built into autonomous systems.
Scott emphasised that the grant's value extends beyond the funding itself. "It's in the opportunities provided to winning teams: the conversations it starts, practical advice, introductions to other experts in the field, and a sharper idea of what successful innovation looks like." Building AI Agents & Automation that researchers can trust requires not just technical skill but a clear understanding of governance and provenance.
Further information and application details are available on Digital Science's Catalyst Grant website.
Why this matters for research scientists
The grant signals a practical shift in how funders think about AI in research. Instead of tools that generate text or detect misconduct after the fact, the focus is on workflows that carry out research tasks while showing their reasoning. For scientists and research teams with an early-stage idea, this is an equity-free route to funding that does not require a polished business plan - just a clear problem, a credible approach, and a working prototype or detailed concept. For those building skills in this area, the AI Learning Path for Research Scientists offers structured training on applying AI across the research lifecycle.
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