The Mozilla Technology Fund will provide awards of up to US$ 50,000 each and one year of mentoring and support to open source projects that meet the criteria listed below. Our aim is to provide the projects in the MTF: AI and Environmental Justice cohort with the resources they need to unlock their full potential and make them more sustainable in the long term.

We are living through a climate emergency. Although we understand that the impacts of this crisis will not be evenly distributed, they will be felt by everyone.

In the last two yearsThe Mozilla Technology Fund has funded research and development in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems; specifically, we support open source projects that increased transparency e mitigated the bias in the AI ecosystem. Increasingly, we are learning about the effects that the growing use of AI will have on ecosystems and the people who live in them. What steps can we take to reduce the environmental and climate impacts of adopting AI? And is there a role that AI systems can play in addressing issues such as environmental degradation, climate change, indigenous justice, food justice and energy justice? This year, the Mozilla Technology Fund seeks to finance open source projects at the intersection of environmental justice and AI that are making a positive impact on ecosystems and human communities.

Mozilla is interested in calling for technical projects that have a solid foundation in environmental and climate justice, sustainability and ecology. We understand that the effects of climate change will be felt disproportionately by the global south, especially people of colour, indigenous and traditional peoples, local communities and specific ethno-racial groups. We are particularly interested in projects that can address the health, economic and social impacts of climate change on these groups (e.g. Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA)) and that are built by these groups or in close partnership with affected communities.

Generally, the Mozilla Technology Fund supports open source projects that already have some momentumA working prototype, a community of collaborators and a user base. Given the early stage of research in the AI + environmental justice space, for this funding round we are also willing to consider early-stage and more experimental projects, as long as they are built by a team with a track record of previous success.

Some of the categories of projects we are interested in funding during this round:

• Projects that expose or mitigate the climate impacts of AI systems: We are starting to see research that reveals the large footprint that AI systems have in terms of carbon emissions, water and electricity use, as well as the environmental impacts of extracting lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements and conflict minerals for use in batteries and hardware. In addition, machine learning and remote sensing are being used by oil and mining companies to accelerate the speed with which natural resources can be extracted. We are keen to consider any projects that help illuminate or take steps to mitigate the environmental impacts of AI technologies, including those mentioned above.
• Projects that use AI to carry out environmental impact assessments: Could AI technologies be used to catalogue and analyse environmental degradation, land and water use, pollution and other environmental impacts? Could these systems be used to monitor the ways in which specific sectors - large agribusinesses, the timber industry, mining and coal - are impacting the environment and the climate? Are there insights that could be gained that could help affected communities advocate for a safer environment or a more responsible use of resources? Are there frameworks that could help evaluate the effectiveness of AI as a tool for environmental assessment and the tradeoffs involved in relation to broader environmental justice concerns? Could these frameworks provide activists with data that could help them resist harmful AI solutions?
• Projects that prototype basic AI systems for ecological management: Are there AI systems that could be built and maintained by or in deep partnership with communities to help them better manage the use of their resources and the security of their land, water, air and food systems? Could these systems help communities achieve goals such as the responsible management of forests and forest fires, the promotion of biodiversity or the traceability of agricultural products? Are there new types of intelligent systems - non-human intelligence or "natural intelligence" - that could be harnessed in such systems? Data sources for such projects could include satellite images, remote sensing data, socio-biodiversity records, climate data, historical land use data and local ecological knowledge contributed by impacted communities and groups.
• Projects that combat climate disinformation: A large amount of climate disinformation (false and misleading content about climate, ecology, land and land rights) flows through social media and other media channels. What AI-based tools can we provide to citizens to help identify and combat the spread of climate information that is demonstrably false? How can we repel greenwashing and false "climate solutions" by providing data and analyses that show the true ecological impacts of industry, commerce and other human activities?

What to expect

The Mozilla Technology Fund will provide awards of up to US$ 50,000 each and one year of mentoring and support to open source projects that meet the criteria listed below. Our aim is to provide the projects in the MTF: AI and Environmental Justice cohort with the resources they need to unlock their full potential and make them more sustainable in the long term.

Awardees are expected to take part in monthly cohort calls for the duration of their project (12 months from January 2023) to share their progress, ask questions and offer peer support to other project teams. Award winners will also have access to Mozilla Scholars with relevant subject matter expertise, who will serve as mentors for members of the MTF cohort. All past and present MTF awardees will have access to the MTF Slack/Discord Community for asynchronous discussions and updates.

Cohort calls will be scheduled during US Pacific Time hours (UTC-7) based on the results of a group survey, and all meetings will be conducted in English. We understand that when English is not your native language, speaking can be more difficult than writing. If you feel that the support of an interpreter would enable you to participate fully in meetings, please note this in your application. We will do our best to accommodate this on a case-by-case basis. All written outputs will still need to be produced in English, including your application and final report.

What are we looking for?

We imagine that the MTF: AI and Environmental Justice Awards will support a variety of hardware and software projects (including utilities and frameworks), datasets, tools and design concepts. We will not consider applications for policy or research projects (although software projects that leverage, support or extend policy and research initiatives will be considered - for example, software that is built to support an ecological study that can be leveraged by other researchers).

All candidates must:

• Have a working product or prototype in hand (we will also consider projects at the idea stage if the project team can demonstrate a track record of successfully launching and building a community around similar projects in the past)
• You already have a core team to support the development of the project (this team can include software developers working closely with ecologists, AI researchers, designers, product/project managers and subject matter experts)
• Adopt openness, transparency and community management as a methodology
• Make your work available under an open source licence

Who should apply?

These awards are open to all candidates, regardless of geographical location or institutional affiliation, except where legally prohibited. However, Mozilla is especially interested in receiving applications from People and Areas Most Affected (MAPA); members of the Global Majority or Global South; Black, Indigenous and other people of colour; women, transgender, non-binary and/or gender diverse applicants; migrant and diasporic communities; and/or people from displaced/climate-impacted communities, etc. We strongly encourage all candidates to apply.

Application process

Applications will be accepted for a period of four weeks and will then be analysed by a committee of experts, who will make final funding decisions and distribute prizes totalling US$ 300,000.

Applicants can expect to receive a reply within six weeks of submitting an application; Please, envie-MTF@mozillafoundation.org an e-mail with any questions.

Applications will be open from 7 September to 5 October 2023at 11.59 a.m. Brasilia time.

Eligibility requirements

Candidates must fulfil the following requirements

• Be legally able to receive funds in the form of a grant from the Mozilla Foundation (a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation)
• Be working to solve a problem of public interest or issue related to the focus of this Call for Proposals
• Meet the criteria described in the "What are we looking for?" section above

Text application package without formatting: To support screen readers or locations with low bandwidth and connectivity, you can download the plain text application pack here.

Information session

An information session for interested candidates will be held on 25 September 2023 at 9am Pacific Time (4am UTC) via Zoom. This will be an opportunity for you to learn more about the Mozilla Technology Fund and this year's call for proposals and to ask any questions you may have about eligibility, the award process and the MTF cohort experience. This information session will be recorded for anyone unable to attend.

Sign up for the information session

Important observations

• All applications and submissions must be in English. However, we encourage applicants to use free translation services. Applications will be analysed on the basis of their conceptual strength, not the quality of the language.
• No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, illegible, incorrect, inaccurate or misdirected registrations or submissions; or for any error, human, technical or otherwise, that may occur in the processing of submissions.
• With the applicant's permission, submitted applications can be shared with other projects within Mozilla, other foundations and partner organisations.
• Grantees are responsible for paying their own taxes on grants. Mozilla reserves the right to withhold taxes as it deems necessary in accordance with applicable laws and to reduce the net grant provided to the grantee accordingly.

Submit your application

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