Publish early and frequently (e.g. on github with a license statement) and encourage others to clone it. Now the code is out there. You can’t take it back. Even better if the funding agency explicitly approves this.
You can still dual-license, later, i.e. use a more permissive (or different) license if the agency or a research partner requires this. Just make sure the repo with your preferred licence stays available and uptodate.
The license is less important than you think. OSS projects live as long as there is at least one maintainer.