Chan Zuckerberg Initiative - Essential Open Source Software for Science (EOSS)
- Free allowance
- No byte quota - $100,000-$400,000 total over two years, from which cloud/storage is a claimable line item.
- Verdict
- caveatusable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- institutionno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- write-gatedinvited full proposal); applications from any country' subject to US export-control screening
- Evidence
- reported6 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | No byte quota - $100,000-$400,000 total over two years, from which cloud/storage is a claimable line item. unit mixed; metered on stored-bytes |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
Two-year grants. Two-stage (LOI then invited full proposal). Requires an organisation or a fiscal sponsor secured by the full-proposal deadline. 'We welcome applications from any country' subject to US export-control screening; non-US institutions cannot subcontract to US institutions if CZI funds it. |
| Identity | institution the award is made to an organisation and never to an individual: an eligible nonprofit or for-profit organisation, public or private institution, or a fiscal sponsor such as NumFOCUS for a project with no institution of its own. The application form asks for the applicant's institution or affiliation and, separately, the award organisation, and the full proposal needs institutional sign-off. No card and no phone number is asked for. |
| Egress | N/A - grant money, you buy the egress. |
| Per-object cap | not stated |
| Retention | not stated |
| Interface | unknown n/a |
| Composes with | The eligibility bridge matters more than the money: 'Grants are not permitted to individuals, only to organizations' but a fiscal sponsor is allowed (NumFOCUS, Code for Science & Society). An individual with an OSS project applies through the sponsor and can then budget multi-year object storage explicitly. |
| Reliability | Cycle-based, not rolling - the current cycle page shows Cycle 6 closed, so timing is the gate. Large award, slow cadence. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 6
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | chanzuckerberg.com/rfa/essential-open-source-software-for-sc | 'Grants are not permitted to individuals, only to organizations'; 'it may designate a fiscal sponsor (e.g., NumFOCUS...)' |
| 2026-10-21 | chanzuckerberg.com/rfa/essential-open-source-software-for-sc | '$50,000 USD and $200,000 USD total costs per year for two years'; 'All grants, regardless of funder, will be for two years' |
| 2026-10-21 | chanzuckerberg.com/rfa/essential-open-source-software-for-sc | 'We welcome applications from any country, provided the proposed work is compliant with... OFAC' |
| 2026-10-21 | chanzuckerberg.com/eoss/ | Cycle 6 $11.7M with Kavli and Wellcome |
| 2026-11-01 | chanzuckerberg.com/rfa/essential-open-source-software-for-sc | a project with no eligible institution applies through a fiscal sponsor, which is the only non-institutional route |
| 2026-11-01 | chanzuckerberg.com/rfa/essential-open-source-software-for-sc | the request is $50,000 to $200,000 a year for two years, the $100,000 to $400,000 total over two years the record states |
Unknown values 5
- interface: the access interface was not established
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- per object cap stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention stated: the field may be stated in a source that was not read