Deadline: August 4, 2023
Applications are open for the Wild Animal Initiative Seed Grants Program 2023. The Wild Animal Initiative Seed Grants program provides small amounts of funding to facilitate projects that will test promising new techniques or approaches, incorporate welfare assessments into ecological research and management, or adapt animal welfare science approaches for wild contexts.
Seed Grants are ideal for early-career scientists or more established principal investigators who have no previous experience with wild animal welfare research. Each Seed Grants call solicits project proposals within one or more broad themes. They expect successful projects to be highly cost-effective, with funds primarily supporting uniquely welfare-relevant activities.
Themes
- Theme 1: Wild fish welfare
- Theme 2: Near-term welfare interventions
Grant
- The grant size is between $2,000 — $30,000 USD.
Eligibility
- Seed Grants are available to anyone, but they are especially interested in supporting early career researchers (postdocs and PhD students) pursuing a long-term research career in wild animal welfare, or established researchers who seek to expand their research portfolio to include wild animal welfare.
- Eligible projects include those that are standalone, or those that add a wild animal welfare component to an existing non-Wild Animal Initiative funded project to broaden its scope.
- Projects must be led by a principal investigator who is affiliated with a university or other research institution (e.g. a government agency).
- Projects must be led by or include collaborators who are residents of all countries where field work will take place. If a project is managed by an NGO, that NGO must be registered in the country where field work will take place.
- They prioritize funding for direct research costs (e.g. supplies, materials), though they do fund other expense areas (e.g. stipends, salaries, capital equipment) if they are fully justified relative to the project goals.
Proposal Guidelines
- Proposals must clearly explain how the project is relevant to wild animals’ welfare, as defined by Wild Animal Initiative.
- Proposals must clearly identify and explain the project’s relevance to one or more of the themes featured in the call.
- Proposals should clearly explain the project’s relevance to multiple domains of welfare.
- Projects must adhere to Wild Animal Initiative’s guidance for animals involved in research, if your project will involve any work with animals, in the field or the lab. Please be aware they are less likely to select a proposed project that would cause any harm to animals. If invasive methods are to be used, welfare concerns should be elaborated in the animal methods form and the methods should be justified with evidence showing why the use of alternatives would not be possible.
- Proposals must clearly justify the study approach chosen, including identifying the resources available for the study and the expertise of team members.
- Proposals must clearly describe the amount of time required from each project team member and confirm that they are able to make that commitment.
Application
For more information, visit WAI Seed Grants.
