New Grants for Innovative Projects

Grantmaking at National Geographic has a history as deep and rich as the Society itself. More than 9,000 scientific research, conservation, and exploration projects have been funded to date, in addition to film seed grants and education grants. In 2007 alone, more than 350 grants were issued by the Society. As the Society continues to discover new ways of exploring our world, it is able to increase its grant support with the creation of a new grantmaking program, the NGS/Waitt Grants.

Explorers and scientists working on nascent initiatives and untested concepts often have trouble finding funding from traditional sources. Through a new partnership with the Waitt Institute for Discovery, the NGS/Waitt Grants Program now gives researchers the resources to undertake immediate field opportunities or test unproven ideas. Grants are awarded expeditiously for exploratory fieldwork that holds promise for new breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences. Established in 2007, this new grant program was made possible through major support from the Waitt Family Foundation.

Learn more and apply online at nationalgeographic.org/waitt.

“We hope NGS/Waitt Grants will get intrepid and resourceful investigators out into the field where they will make exciting discoveries that otherwise would not have been possible.”

— Ted Waitt, founder of the Waitt Family Foundation

Protecting Freshwater Giants

As a Conservation Trust grantee, Zeb Hogan — also a 2005 Emerging Explorer — is redefining our understanding of giant freshwater fish species, many of which are critically endangered. Known as “megafish,” and defined for the project’s purpose as fish larger than 200 pounds or longer than six feet, they include catfish, gars, stingrays, sturgeon, lungfish, carp, paddlefish, and salmon. Hogan is working not only to save these fish, but also the livelihood of the people who share their habitats and the health of the diverse freshwaters they occupy — often World Heritage sites. To help gather data, Hogan works with local fishers to catch the endangered fish and then tags and releases them back into the water for future study. Having completed the pilot year of the Megafishes Project in Asia, Zeb plans to take the project to locations in Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas through 2009.

“Working with National Geographic gives me a chance to share my experiences with a large number of people that might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn about threatened fish and their habitats.”

— Zeb Hogan, National Geographic Emerging Explorer