CIEIF Sixth Grant Round: environmental impact assessment, impact modelling and stakeholder engagement for climate intervention field tests

CIEIF funds the due-diligence layer around climate intervention field tests, not the interventions themselves. A grant pays for environmental impact assessment, predictive impact modelling, and/or engagement with potentially affected stakeholders for an innovative climate intervention technology that is on the verge of field testing. Applications that do not centre on at least one of those three elements are rejected quickly.

Explicitly global — the guidelines state "the reach of potential grants is global". Nonprofit institutions, including academic institutions, are the stated highest priority, so UNIMA is exactly the applicant type CIEIF prefers. Two conditions bite, however: international projects are ranked higher where a non-profit US partner exists to receive the grant as a donation, and individuals and student projects are not funded at all. The applicant entity must have a website, and its legal nature must be clear.

Independent environmental impact assessment; predictive impact and life-cycle modelling; outreach to and engagement with potentially affected communities, fishing and farming organisations, indigenous groups and government agencies. Salary time for the applicant and for consultants engaged in that work, plus closely associated expenses

Basic research and implementation of the intervention itself. Stratospheric solar radiation management, carbon capture utilisation and storage, and direct air capture are all excluded outright. So, critically, adaptation, clean energy, climate resilience, emissions reduction and sustainable development are excluded — the guidelines say such applications will be "quickly rejected" no matter how worthy. Individuals and student projects are ineligible.

There is no form or template. Contact Peter T. Jenkins, Manager, at info@CIEIF.org before submitting; he will agree on how the application should be delivered. Maximum 20 pages, single-spaced, 12-point, English only, answering ten set questions covering personnel, the field test and its prior evidence, permits needed, publications, at least two candidate independent consulting firms, a budget, other funding, insurance, and willingness to publish. Biosketches and key papers may be added as supplements, preferably by link. Applications are kept confidential.

Timeline

Applications due 1 December 2026 | Decisions announced by 1 February 2027 | Scoping discussions with CIEIF, then the first third of the grant paid up front | Remaining payments against negotiated benchmarks