Deadline:14th November, 2025.
Wild Animal Initiative’s Seed Grants program provides small amounts of funding to help researchers develop new ideas or build wild animal welfare questions into existing projects.
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 broad themes aligned with Wild Animal Initiative’s research priorities. They expect successful projects to be highly cost-effective, with funds primarily supporting uniquely welfare-relevant activities.
Grant
Up to $10,000 USD total
Eligibility
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Seed Grants are available to anyone, but we 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.
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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.
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Projects must be led by a principal investigator who is affiliated with a university or other research institution (e.g. a government agency).
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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.
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We prioritize funding for direct research costs (e.g. supplies, materials), though we do fund other expense areas (e.g. stipends, salaries, capital equipment) if they are fully justified relative to the project goals. Further details on what is eligible for funding can be found in our FAQs. We will not reject a proposal based solely on budget without first asking applicants to consider modifications, but applicants should limit their requests to what is reasonably needed to complete the project.
Proposal guidelines
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Proposals must clearly explain how the project is relevant to wild animals’ welfare, as defined by Wild Animal Initiative.
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Proposals must clearly identify and explain the project’s relevance to one or more of the themes featured in the call.
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Proposals should clearly explain the project’s relevance to multiple domains of welfare.
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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 we are less likely to select a proposed project that would cause any harm to animals. If distressing 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. We generally will not fund projects that use destructive sampling methods. If you believe that the objectives of your study cannot be accomplished without killing or physically harming animals and you cannot identify alternative methods, please reach out and we can discuss what options may be available to you.
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Proposals must clearly justify the study approach chosen, including identifying the resources available for the study and the expertise of team members.
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Proposals must clearly describe the amount of time required from each project team member and confirm that they are able to make that commitment.
For more information and application.