Gates Foundation Awards $7 Million to Rainbow Crops to Develop Climate-Resilient Crops for Heat and Drought Conditions

10 April 2026, Belgium: The Gates Foundation has awarded a $7 million grant to Rainbow Crops to support the development of crop varieties that can perform under heat and drought conditions. The funding is intended to support work on genetic approaches to improve crop performance for smallholder farmers.

The grant will be used to apply Rainbow Crops’ Trait Foundry™ platform to identify and combine genetic traits linked to crop performance during early growth stages. The project will focus on improving germination and seedling establishment under challenging climatic conditions in regions including Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The Trait Foundry™ platform combines genome editing, artificial intelligence, breeding, and phenotyping to work on traits controlled by multiple genes, such as drought tolerance and plant growth. The approach differs from methods that focus on single traits.

The initial research will focus on corn, sorghum, and rice, which are widely grown crops. The work will examine seedling performance under heat and drought stress and aims to produce data and genetic material for use in breeding programmes.

The technology is based on research conducted at VIB. Rainbow Crops will work with the laboratory of Professor Hilde Nelissen, as well as VIB’s Transformation Facility and Agro-Incubator.

Giacomo Bastianelli, Co-founder and CEO of Rainbow Crops, said the grant will support further development of the company’s platform and research on crop performance under climate stress.

The platform has been tested in corn. The company will also work with industry partners on research coordination and data sharing.

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