Google.org awards $20m to AI-led science projects tackling health, energy and biodiversity

Google.org has named 12 recipients of its US$20 million AI for Science fund, supporting academic, nonprofit and startup-led initiatives that apply artificial intelligence to major scientific challenges across health, food systems, biodiversity and clean energy.

Five of the funded projects focus on life and health sciences. UW Medicine is using Fiber-seq technology to create long-read maps of the 99 per cent of the human genome that remains poorly understood. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is developing BAN-map, a real-time AI tool that analyses neural activity and adjusts experimental conditions dynamically.

The Technical University of Munich is building a multiscale foundation model to connect data from individual cells to whole organs. Uganda’s Infectious Disease Institute at Makerere University is applying tools including AlphaFold and the EVE framework to track malaria parasite evolution and identify drug resistance.

France-based Spore.Bio is building an AI-driven scanner aimed at reducing detection time for drug-resistant bacteria from several days to under one hour.

Other grantees are tackling agriculture, conservation and energy. The Sainsbury Laboratory is developing Bifrost, which uses AlphaFold3 to predict plant immune responses from genomic data.

The Periodic Table of Food Initiative is using AI to catalogue thousands of previously uncharacterised food molecules. The Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley is studying cow microbiomes to identify gene edits that could reduce methane emissions from livestock.

The Rockefeller University is applying AI to automate genome sequencing and data curation for the 1.8 million known species on Earth. UNEP-WCMC is using large language models to process biodiversity records and produce a global distribution map for 350,000 plant species.

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At the Swiss Plasma Center in Lausanne, researchers are building a standardised global dataset to support AI learning in nuclear fusion energy. Meanwhile, the University of Liverpool is connecting AI agents, autonomous lab robots and human researchers into a collective “Hive Mind” system to accelerate the discovery of materials for carbon capture.

Google.org said it would continue to support the funded projects and is seeking further applicants focused on AI-driven scientific research.

The Recap

• Google.org awards 12 organizations from its AI for Science fund.
• The fund totals $20 million to support AI-driven research.
• Recipients work on health, food systems, biodiversity and energy.