Charlotte Robotics Teams Receive $165,000 in Grants

Honeywell's new STEM Innovation Fund backs 11 local FIRST groups as spring competitions begin.

Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Robotics

Half-assembled wheeled robot chassis with exposed aluminum frame and colored wiring on a bare workbench in a brick-walled workshop. — Honeywell Technologies is distributing $165,000 in grants to 11 Charlotte groups that sponsor FIRST robotics teams through its new STEM Innovation Fund. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Honeywell Technologies, a Charlotte-based company, is distributing $165,000 in grants to 11 local groups that sponsor FIRST robotics teams, as part of a new Honeywell STEM Innovation Fund. The grant program is an announced initiative; the grants are awarded, while the teams' competition results are not yet known.

Why it matters

The funding is aimed at helping student robotics teams compete at the highest levels, expanding access to hands-on engineering experience in the Charlotte area. Corporate sponsorship of this kind is one way local teams fund the hardware and budgets that competitive robotics now requires.

The grants are a corporate funding commitment: $15,000 to each of 11 groups sponsoring FIRST robotics teams, totaling $165,000. For scale, Avian Robotics alone operates on an $85,000 budget this year, so a single group's grant covers a meaningful share of a team's annual costs.

The players

Honeywell Technologies

Charlotte-based industrial technology company whose products span building automation, aerospace, and process control software and hardware.

Carolina Panthers

Charlotte's NFL franchise, which pledged a per-yard donation to First North Carolina and sent tackle Ikem Ekwonu to the Honeywell event.

Tepper Sports & Entertainment

The sports and entertainment company that owns the Carolina Panthers and co-funded the per-passing-yard pledge to First North Carolina.

FIRST

The nonprofit that runs the FIRST robotics competitions and sets the annual challenge all participating teams build against.

The details

FIRST, the organization that runs the robotics competitions, sets a single challenge for all participating teams each January, and teams build machines to meet it over the following months. Honeywell is distributing its grants to the local groups that sponsor those teams, which handle the funding that keeps the teams running. The Carolina Panthers and Tepper Sports & Entertainment have separately pledged $1,000 to First North Carolina for every 50 passing yards the team gains this season.

January: FIRST sets the robotics challenge that all teams work from.
March: Robotics competitions begin and run through the spring.
November 2, 2026: Honeywell announced the grants and hosted a robotics event at its headquarters in Charlotte.

The Tech Race

FIRST's annual challenge structure gives teams a common technical target each year, and corporate sponsors like Honeywell now fund the hardware and budgets that determine how far a team can go. Competitive robotics is increasingly a contest of resources as well as engineering skill.

The $15,000 grants reach 11 local groups now, so the sponsoring organizations can fund their teams for the upcoming season. Students on these teams gain hands-on access to robotics hardware and competition without bearing the full cost themselves.

The takeaway

Watch whether the funded Charlotte teams advance in the spring FIRST competitions, which will show whether added corporate support translates into stronger results. The Panthers' per-yard pledge will also resolve as the season's passing totals accumulate.