National Geographic initiative launches in Australia

With the launch in Australia of a global fund for science, conservation and exploration, the National Geographic Society is providing grants of around US$25,000 each for new projects.

Since 1945, the society has funded more than 250 projects in Australia, including work by the University of Sydney's Professor Ian Hume on patterns of dispersal of juvenile koalas, and Professor Rick Shine on the ecology of tropical pythons.

The new fund widens the scope of the grants, and renews the society's commitment to Australia and New Zealand as a region for innovative field research and environmental studies, and important biodiversity to preserve and document.

Applicants must have an advanced degree, such as a PhD, and be associated with an educational organisation or institution.

The international adviser for the new fund, Dr Tim Flannery, director of the South Australian Museum and also a former recipient, spoke of the value of the small funds, saying it was sometimes easier to procure six-digit funding than smaller, almost "start-up" grants such as those now on offer from the society.

For further information, please visit the National Geographic Channel website.

Item provided courtesy of The University of Sydney