Earthwatch Institute

OVERVIEW: The Earthwatch Institute works to engage people and their communities who address environmental conservation; supporting scientific research; promoting STEM education; and to advance climate change efforts across its programs. It also funds work relating to freshwater pollution, sustainable agriculture, and coastal marine life.

IP TAKE: The Earthwatch Institute invites applications from established researchers of any nationality who meet the institute’s education and experiential criteria. For research projects, principal investigators are required to have a Ph.D. and an affiliation with a university, science-focused NGO, or government agency. Interested grant seekers should check it’s website, which publishes calls for proposals. Earthwatch tends to make research and project specific grants. Projects with a focus on equity in science have an edge.

PROFILE: Established in 1971, Earthwatch Institute engages people across the globe in scientific research and education in order to advocate for a sustainable environment.

Taking an innovative citizen-science approach, Earthwatch works to empower individuals to take “scientific research and conservation.” It believes that by pairing non-scientists with scientists in research locations across the global, Earthwatch fills a “unique niche,” providing an “outlet for people from all walks of life to study and conserve the natural world.” The foundation’s U.S. office is headquartered in Boston; however, Earthwatch is administratively organized by world region. The foundation invests in STEM education, science research, climate change and environmental conservation.

While the Earthwatch Institute conducts grantmaking through essentially two programs, those programs invest in a variety of areas related to the environment. It pursues all of its grantmaking, therefore, through an environmental lens that serves to build a more equitable and diverse space within science, which has historically been an exclusive space. Earthwatch is committed to “tearing down barriers that prevent all voices from being heard and present in the field of science” by creating opportunities for research to be made accessible to people “regardless of their scientific, educational, or social background.”

Grants for Environmental Science Research and Climate Change

Earthwatch awards scientists (Principal Investigators) who conduct environmental research that falls within the foundation’s research themes with research funding. Research grants cover field equipment, transportation to the field, field technicians, support staff, food and housing. Earthwatch bases research funding on the number of project participants.

As well, the foundation supports several initiatives focused on fresh water quality, reducing plastic river pollution, and protecting local wildlife and habitats. While the foundation funds work related to climate change across all of its programs, it also has a specific initiative dedicated to businesses working in climate-proof cities. Other environmental research focuses on sustainable agriculture, freshwater pollution, and coastal marine life.

Grants for STEM Education

Earthwatch’s STEM education grants – for teachers and students or young conservationists in developing countries – center on the environment, and subsequently, climate change. Educator-driven initiatives help to increase teachers’ repertoire of methods and tools to develop students ‘ confidence and interest in the outdoors. Its Teach Earth initiative provides a link between science, nature and the environment through a combination of citizen science, practical learning and collaborative activities. The initiative is meant to increase youth’s knowledge of local and global environmental issues. All educational guidance follows the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to “bring science and climate change to life in the outdoors.” Teachers can also help students get involved in a current environmental research project. The foundation separately offers Education Fellowships to either teachers or students.

The foundation also funds a program, Supporting Early-Career Scientists, dedicated to young conservationists located in developing countries. Its Shulman Awards invests in “research and training grants for environmental scientists in the early stages of their careers. Thanks to the kind support of explorer Neville Shulman CBE, these grants enable young scientists to achieve career development in their research relating to threatened species and habitats, as well as educating and engaging local communities.” Shulman Awards tend to prioritize early-career scientists in Latin and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, among other areas.

Important Grant Details:

Earthwatch typically makes grants from $20,000 to $80,000. Due to safety concerns, the foundation publishes a “No Go” List of regions and countries in which research projects cannot be supported.  It prefers to fund individual research projects and teachers over big organizations, an extension of the foundation’s citizen-science strategy.

Earthwatch’s Boston office is the international coordinating office. Other Earthwatch teams are based in the UK, Japan, Australia, India, and Hong Kong, and welcomes contact.

PEOPLE:

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