Challenge Grants - Wild Animal Initiative
Supports rigorous, innovative research addressing neglected questions in wild animal welfare, focusing on high-impact studies across diverse species and ecological contexts.
Funder: Wild Animal Initiative
Due Dates (Anticipated): March 2026 (EOI) | June 2026 (Full proposal)
Funding Amounts: $50,000–$100,000 total per project; project duration up to 5 years
Summary: Supports innovative research on neglected wild animal welfare topics, emphasizing methodological rigor and high-impact outcomes led by experienced investigators.
Description
Wild Animal Initiative’s Challenge Grants are designed to advance the field of wild animal welfare research by supporting projects that tackle pivotal and underexplored questions. These grants are intended for experienced principal investigators aiming to open new research directions, particularly those that may not attract mainstream funding. Projects must align with priority research themes such as welfare indicator validation, interspecific interactions, population dynamics, cause-specific mortality, landscape ecology, cascade effects, welfare interventions, juvenile welfare, invertebrate welfare, and fish welfare. The program emphasizes methodological rigor, originality, feasibility, and the potential to improve the welfare of large numbers of wild animals.
