Open call: Agog – Climate Futures + Immersive Media

May 29, 2026 | Awards & Funding, Faculty

To: Science Faculty
From: Office of Foundation Relations
Subject: Funding Opportunity

The Office of Foundations Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from Agog, The Immersive Media Institute.   

 

 

Overview

This open call supports immersive media projects that help people better understand and respond to climate challenges and imagine what a better world could be. Here are some ways tools could be used:

  • Climate storytelling and civic participation: Place-based, immersive experiences that help people viscerally understand climate change and inspire meaningful civic engagement, organizing, and collective action.
  • Community power and resilience: Resources that put real-time information, coordination capacity, and decision-making power in the hands of frontline communities before, during, and after climate disasters.
  • Access and equity: Projects that center communities most impacted by climate disasters and explore pathways for repair, sovereignty, landback, and community-led climate leadership. 
  • Planetary connection: In the face of climate anxiety, tools and experiences that support and deepen meaningful connection to the natural world through immersive media.
  • Future-building and world design: Projects that help us expand our collective imagination to envision a more livable, connected, and thriving future.
  • Your brilliant ideas: Bold, imaginative approaches that haven’t yet been thought of that expand what climate participation can feel and look like for the public good.

Please see FAQs for more details 

Award Amount & Terms

  • Grants range from $25,000 to $200,000
  • Selected projects may receive mentorship, advisor support, and opportunities for partnership and distribution

 

Eligibility: 

  • Both XR creators and mission-driven organizations are encouraged to apply
  • Applications welcomed from organizations with strong climate-focused work that are newer to XR and interested in exploring how immersive media can expand their impact
  • All applications must be submitted through a US-based registered entity

 

Timeline:

  • June 3, 2026, 10-11am PT Open Call Info Session
  • June 12, 2026, 23:59 PT Applications due
  • Fall 2026 Notification

 

Special Requirements: 

Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (fr@ucsc.edu). Please submit a proposal intake form prior to UCSC’s internal Institutional Deadlines. For support developing your proposal, please send a request to the Office of Research Development, resdev@ucsc.edu. Within the Division of Social Sciences, please contact Ashlee Tews (ashleeac@ucsc.edu) to initiate notification and proposal support.

 

Call sent: May 27, 2026

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The Office Foundation Relations is a unit of University Advancement. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations and corporations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits. For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website: FR Calls for Funding.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact sacarle@ucsc.edu
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