The Arctic Stabilization Initiative (ASI)

Year

2025

Grant Level

Build Grant

Seed Grant (Completed)

Focus Area

Restoring Ocean Balance & Ecosystems

Website:

   Standalone ASI homepage

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth which exacerbates several catastrophic climate risks, including sea ice loss, destabilization of the Greenland ice sheet destabilization, and permafrost thaw, all of which threaten to unleash cascading consequences, including weakening the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). ASI, which launched publicly in April 2026, is evaluating potential targeted and reversible interventions like mixed-phase cloud thinning (MCT)  to protect the Arctic from further destabilization and reduce the many risks its accelerated warming poses. 

ASI has advanced from concept stage to a multi-year, stage-gated research program in less than two years and has raised $9 million in external philanthropic funding. Its initial modeling suggests MCT could cool the Arctic by up to 1.0 degrees Celsius; based on independent modeling, the damages that level of cooling could help mitigate exceed forecast intervention deployment costs by over 1,000x. 

Program Personnel

Charlotte DeWald

Fellow and Program Director

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Charlotte DeWald is an atmospheric scientist who integrates models and observations to advance the predictive understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) and constraining uncertainties across sources and scales—from in situ measurements to large-scale climate models. Her research focuses on highly efficient biological ice-nucleating particles (INPs), extremely rare aerosols (1 in 10⁹) that can trigger cloud ice formation and precipitation. She has led multi-institutional efforts to measure and model ACI, resulting in the first INP observations over the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf, satellite-based constraints on ACI radiative forcing for climate models, and advanced instrumentation for high-temperature INP detection. Charlotte holds a Ph.D. in Climate Science from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Seed Grants

ARC’s Seed grants will provide early-stage funding to catalyze promising ideas addressing catastrophic climate risks.

ARC Seed grants support promising ideas with exploratory efforts, scoping studies, concept development, early-stage research, and small pilot projects, to help develop and refine innovative concepts or unblock initial barriers.

Timeline: ARC Seed grants are provided for 3-6 month engagements.

Grant Amount: ARC’s Seed grants generally provide $30–100K in funding as well as deep engagement on project design and strategy.

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Build Grants

ARC’s Build grants will enable leaders to turn promising concepts into actionable programs.

ARC Build grants support the development of independent organizations or partnerships with existing entities, focusing on activities such as program planning, roadmapping, early implementation, and organizational development.

Timeline: ARC Build grants are provided for 6-month to 1-year engagements.

Grant Amount: ARC’s Build grants generally provide $100-400k in funding as well as strategic and operational support, and a variety of technical expertise.

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Scale Partners

ARC’s Scale grants will empower our partner organizations to achieve significant impact by advancing key program objectives.

ARC’s Scale Partnerships provide targeted support to help organizations working on challenges aligned with ARC’s mission to enhance their efforts addressing climate risks.

In addition to resources, we offer technical expertise, strategic guidance for organizational growth and research, and hands-on support in fundraising and partnership development. By working closely with our partners, we ensure that promising initiatives are well-positioned to succeed and grow.

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