June 11, 2026
Google DeepMind, together with Schmidt Sciences, the Cooperative AI Foundation, ARIA, and Google.org, has opened a technical research funding call of up to $10 million for researchers worldwide to study the safety of multi-agent AI systems.
Why it matters
The partners argue that AI is entering an era in which millions of agents built by different organizations will communicate, negotiate, and transact with one another. Most safety evaluations today assess models in isolation, but interacting agents can produce sudden, hard-to-predict “emergent” behaviors that current tools cannot easily measure or monitor. The aim is to strengthen the stability of the whole agent ecosystem early.
What the funding covers
Proposals are invited in four priority areas: sandboxes and testbeds for evaluating multi-agent systems; the science of agent networks, including how collective capabilities emerge and how networks fail or become volatile; strengthening agent infrastructure such as identity, reputation, and commitment protocols; and oversight and control methods for monitoring deployed agent populations and mitigating collective harms at scale.
How to apply
The application deadline is August 8, 2026, with awardees expected to be announced in autumn 2026. Details and the application portal are available through Schmidt Sciences.
Source: Google DeepMind, “Investing in multi-agent AI safety research,” June 11, 2026. Facts attributed to the announcing organizations.