Chimaera Fund: Grantee Spotlight (2026)

Grantee Spotlight: the Chimaera Fund 

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to the Chimaera Fund, an initiative of Renaissance Philanthropy, to accelerate the responsible deployment of geologic hydrogen. Renaissance Philanthropy is a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on driving breakthroughs in critical technologies.

The Chimaera Fund’s work falls within our philanthropic strategies of reducing aviation emissions, reducing shipping emissions, and decarbonizing heavy industry. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including potential risks and co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: February 2026

What Is the Chimaera Fund?

The Chimaera Fund was launched in 2026 to accelerate the deployment of geologic hydrogen by supporting fundamental, open-access research and advancing critical policies. The initiative is based in the U.S. and is currently active across the U.S., India, and Japan. It advances technical understanding of geologic hydrogen by facilitating open-access research and data publication, and it works with national and state governments to build research programs and regulatory frameworks for geologic hydrogen.

What Are We Funding, and How Could It Help Address Climate Change?

Hydrogen is a key feedstock for low-carbon manufacturing across several hard-to-abate sectors, including chemicals, steel, and aviation. However, hydrogen production is currently almost entirely fossil fuel-based, with green hydrogen uptake lagging due to its high cost (~$5/kgH₂). Geologic hydrogen (also known as white or gold hydrogen) is generated in the Earth’s subsurface and has the potential to be a cost-competitive alternative to green hydrogen, with some early sites generating hydrogen at under $1/kgH₂. However, the field remains nascent and currently lacks sufficient investment to achieve meaningful emissions reductions.

The Chimaera Fund has identified several bottlenecks constraining the development of the geologic hydrogen industry, including limited and fragmented open-access geological data, insufficient understanding of how to identify high-yield sites, minimal policy or regulatory frameworks for exploration and production licensing, and critically low funding from both private industry and governments relative to other hydrogen generation pathways. Addressing these barriers could unlock additional public and private capital and advance fundamental knowledge, enabling efficient site selection for early pilots and ensuring that scarce funding is deployed to the greatest effect.

The initiative’s programs include:

• Catalyzing open science field experimentation to accelerate industry-wide learning on subsurface hydrogen generation systems, such as by sponsoring researcher access to commercial hydrogen wells and publishing results openly. 

• Building an evidence base and promoting best practices from the field, such as by publishing information on technoeconomic assessments, life-cycle assessments, and hydrogen leakage rates. 

• Working with national and subnational governments on geologic hydrogen initiatives. The Fund is arranging placement of government fellows to design potential research programs, subsidy mechanisms, and regulations. 

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Why Do We Think the Chimaera Fund Will Use This Funding Well?

Geologic hydrogen is a highly neglected philanthropic impact area, still being in its infancy. To our knowledge, just a handful of nonprofits engage with the field, and none are solely dedicated to it. We think the Fund’s team is exceptionally well-positioned to lead in this space, drawing on expertise from leading academic and governmental institutions as well as commercial experience in subsurface energy. 

In the short time it has been active, the initiative has achieved several catalytic milestones that leverage external resources to amplify its impact and build momentum around geologic hydrogen. For example:

• Launching its first Site Access Challenge with the start-up HyTerra. To our knowledge, this project is the first instance of researchers gaining access to a commercial hydrogen well. The challenge enables industry to safely share data and has garnered interest from additional private-sector companies to replicate the project on new sites.

• Partnering with a major governmental institution to conduct technoeconomic assessments of existing proprietary wells, which are expected to become the first public assessments of modern production wells, and would provide clarity to potential stakeholders on their economic viability.

• Building relationships and advancing projects in India, Iceland, Japan, Korea, and several U.S. states, with plans to build on high levels of interest by launching a U.S. state fellows program and advancing regional prospecting in India.

The Fund has ambitious growth plans for 2026, having identified $8 million in funding opportunities. These include building a core team; expanding its Site Access Challenge with additional partner startups; growing its work with U.S. and international governments; and convening geologic hydrogen buyers and producers to launch a buyer-led demonstration challenge.

As of February 2026, the initiative has mobilized $1.4 million, and we think further funding would be highly additional, enabling the Chimaera Fund to continue building momentum for ongoing programs and expand into new high-impact opportunities.

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Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our top nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.