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The Wild Animal Initiative is now accepting applications for its 2025 Challenge Grants. Interested candidates are urged to click here to learn more about this opportunity and to apply.
Opportunity Details
Wild Animal Initiative’s Challenge Grants support researchers exploring critical research questions that will unlock new avenues of wild animal welfare research and are not prioritized by other funders. Each round of Challenge Grants calls for projects within one or more specific themes. These flagship projects should be led by experienced principal investigators and demonstrate a high degree of relevance to high priority research areas, novelty, and methodological rigor.
Challenge Grant projects must be led by an experienced principal investigator, but can include financial support for students or other early-career collaborators. When submitting an expression of interest for a Challenge Grant, applicants may request to be considered for a WAI Fellowship, which offers mentorship and a supplementary stipend to postdoctoral researchers and PhD students pursuing a long-term career in wild animal welfare research. The process and parameters for fellowships will be shared with those invited to apply at the full proposal stage.
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.
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.
Applicant submits short Expression of Interest (EOI) form (preview).
EOI is reviewed for eligibility and relevance by the Wild Animal Initiative Grants team.
If the EOI is shortlisted, the applicant is invited to develop a full proposal. If you have expressed interest in a fellowship in addition to your main project, you will also be informed at this stage of whether we will continue to evaluate you as a potential fellow.
The full proposal is externally reviewed by project-relevant experts.
The proposal is externally reviewed by specialists in animal care and ethics.
The proposal is reviewed by Wild Animal Initiative technical experts.
The lead applicant may be asked to provide clarification or make modifications in response to reviewer feedback.
The review team discusses shortlisted proposals and makes final selection of the most promising projects.
Final decisions are shared with applicants and announced on our website. Decisions are generally made within 6 months of the EOI deadline.
