National Geographic Society: Early Career Grant

The National Geographic Society supports projects that are bold, innovative, and potentially transformative and have a primary focus in conservation, education, research, storytelling, or technology. Early Career Grants are designed to offer less experienced individuals an opportunity to lead a project. Projects should align to one of the following three focus areas.

• Wildlife: This focus includes species-focused projects and the local evolutionary and ecological processes that sustain them. Support is provided to projects that seek to discover and identify species and ecosystems and to mitigate threats to Earth’s life forms. Projects will improve understanding of biological diversity, including behavior, life history, evolution, ecology, and habitat requirements.
• Human journey: This focus supports projects in a range of fields that are helping to understand the origins and development of the human species; how humans modified and adapted to diverse landscapes across the globe; the evolution of cultures and societies; and the current status of and trends in cultural, linguistic, and genetic diversity. Recognizing that human society is currently out of balance with the natural world, this focus also seeks projects that propose solutions to mitigate this imbalance.
• Changing planet: The focus is on Earth’s dynamic terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. These are the foundations of life on the planet, yet are increasingly threatened by exploitation, mismanagement, and climate change. Support will be provided to projects that illuminate these issues to better inform decision making and to develop more effective models for conservation and protected area management at large scales. This area of focus seeks to reduce negative human impacts on ecosystems and Earth processes by increasing knowledge, inspiring action, and creating solutions with direct, quantifiable, and scalable methods for conserving landscapes or seascapes.

Amount: Grants typically range from $5,000-$10,000.

Eligibility: Individuals who are at least 18 years of age. Applicants are not required to have an advanced degree. Anyone with more than five years of professional experience in the field of their project focus does not qualify for an Early Career Grant (but can apply for an Exploration Grant instead). Organizations can also apply for grants, but the person within the organization who will lead the project—not the institution—should be the applicant. Giving is on an international basis.

Link: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/grants/grant-opportunities/

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