Driven by Innovation. Guided by Humanity.

We accelerate sustainable technology that solves humanitarian challenges — working with partners around the globe to create positive impact for both people and planet.

Insight

Boreal Launch completes orbital-scale qualification of its hybrid rocket engine

Insight

Substrata brings controlled-environment sensing to 1.25 metres of soil depth

Insight

Sovereign AI programme publishes its 13-part Sovereign Digital Infrastructure Series

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About Us

A foundation for a fairer, more sustainable century

The Burnard Foundation, co-founded by Bijan Burnard and Alina Burnard, backs pioneering technologies, ventures and research addressing humanitarian and environmental challenges. Its work spans food systems and agriculture, clean energy and materials, space technology, social innovation, sustainable mobility, and sovereign AI—supporting innovations with the potential to create lasting, system-level impact for people and planet.

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Our View of the World

Prosperity and a healthy planet are not a trade-off

We invest in sustainable technology that solves humanitarian challenges — creating positive impact for both people and planet.

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How We Work

We back big ideas and turn them into impact at scale

We don't just write checks and walk away. We anchor projects in independent science and assemble the full value chain around each idea.

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Our Ideas

We invest in big ideas

At the Burnard Foundation, we're focused on turning ambitious ideas into meaningful action. We support transformative programs, accelerate breakthrough technologies, and develop new financing approaches to help unlock solutions at the scale our planet needs.

We also bring together leaders, innovators, scientists, and organizations from across sectors to accelerate progress and turn promising ideas into real-world impact. Explore the bold ideas and approaches driving this work—and see how the Burnard Foundation is helping the world make major leaps forward to protect and restore nature and address the climate crisis.

Food Systems & Agriculture

Commonground reimagines community-centred food production, Truestart supplies disease-free seedlings as a service, and Substrata retrieves environmental data from soil today's infrastructure cannot reach.

Clean Energy & Materials

Voltskin is a nanomaterial photovoltaic coating — a solar paint — that turns everyday surfaces into electricity-generating ones, independently inspected and priced at a fraction of conventional panels.

Space Technology

Boreal Launch is qualifying hybrid rocket propulsion for orbital use — simpler and safer than liquid engines, more than 50% lower in emissions, and built to make access to space affordable.

Social Innovation

Openbasket gives consumers free access to essential goods, funded by a restructured, tiered advertising model — with recycled packaging and fair distribution built in from the start.

Sustainable Mobility

Flatfare is a feasibility study for a subscription-based short-haul airline between European capitals, establishing a costed basis for further environmental and operational assessment.

Sovereign AI

A programme helping export-dependent developing nations own the digital and AI infrastructure their economies rely on, grounded in our thirteen-part Sovereign Digital Infrastructure Series.

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Our Programs