Validation Grants - Wild Animal Initiative
Forecasted
Validation Grants - Wild Animal Initiative supports researchers testing indicators of wild animals’ positive and negative experiences to establish reliable welfare measures for future research and interventions.
This grant was recently updated
Validation Grants are no longer open for applications: the funder replaced its notice accepting applications through October 31 with “There is no active call for proposals at this time.” The 2026 call is now listed under past calls.
Funder: Wild Animal Initiative
Due Dates (Anticipated): April 2027 (EOI) | June 2027 (Full proposal)
Funding Amounts: Up to $200,000 USD total for up to 3 years
Summary: Supports research testing whether proposed indicators reliably reflect wild animals’ welfare under conditions expected to induce positive or negative experiences.
Key Information: Projects must focus exclusively on welfare indicator validation and be led by a PI affiliated with a university or other research institution.
Description
Wild Animal Initiative’s Validation Grants fund research that tests whether proposed indicators reliably assess wild animals’ subjective welfare—their positive and negative affective states. Because these states cannot be measured directly, projects measure indicators under conditions expected to improve or worsen welfare, examining whether the indicators consistently reflect those presumed experiences.
The program addresses a major bottleneck in wild animal welfare science: establishing validated indicators for particular species and systems that can support further research and eventual interventions. Negative results are also valued, including findings that indicators respond inconsistently to different welfare treatments. Captive studies can qualify when their indicators and experimental conditions make findings likely transferable to wild individuals of the same or closely related species.
