Grants Available for Research
Earthwatch supports projects with funding and field assistants. To qualify for support you must be able to work with or use a team of volunteers and have an association with a recognised research institution or other organisation. Earthwatch cannot provide funds for field salaries of the principal investigator although we can assist with support of your research assistants in some cases.
To ensure our research addresses pressing global environmental issues, Earthwatch will preferentially fund projects that specifically focus on one or more of our four Research Areas.
Scientists will be expected to work with Earthwatch to ensure that the project's objectives fit the focus of one or more of these four priority research areas and directly contributes knowledge to attaining a sustainable environment. In addition, it is highly desirable that a project:
- leaves a legacy after the project's lifespan. This could include implementation of management plans or recommendations by local organisations arising from the research, or strategies to continue the research. An indication of how any post project outcomes will be monitored should be included
- maximises educational potential for project stakeholders, including the local community and partner organisations. Activities could include education workshops or talks for local schools and communities, opportunities for community members to visit the field site or contributing to local and national media about the impacts of the research
- demonstrates that it will build and enhance abilities, relationships, values and skills that will enable local organisations, groups and individuals to improve their performance towards attaining a sustainable environment. Such capacity building activities could include training of local institutions or community members, facilitating technology transfer, or enhancing wide access to information relating to and arising from the project
Earthwatch support assists scientists to collect information that contributes to the understanding of ecosystem services and resilience, species distributions and abundances, and the role of socio-economics in biodiversity conservation. We support ecologists, conservation scientists, archaeologists, palaeontologists, anthropologists, social scientists and others.
Earthwatch Australia is one of four offices in a network supporting research worldwide. Presently Earthwatch supports approximately 120 projects worldwide including research on:
- The impacts of global climate change on tropical biodiversity (Dr Steve Williams, James Cook University)
- Understanding life history and demographic trends of the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Ian Bell, Queensland Parks and Wildlife)
- Monitoring whale shark numbers and documenting their preferred habitat and prey at Ningaloo Reef. (Brad Norman, Ecocean)
We are currently seeking proposals for projects in Australia, the Pacific, South East Asia, Melanesia, China, Russia and New Zealand. Projects need to run for at least for 3 years and be able to accommodate 6 or more volunteer teams, 3-4 or more times per year. However we welcome enquiries that may stretch this model.