After thorough application review and thoughtful deliberation with our judging panel, we are delighted to officially announce the winners of the 2026 WILDLABS Awards.

Now in its third year, the WILDLABS Awards continue to grow in both reach and impact, attracting an exceptional breadth and diversity of applications from across the conservation technology community. We saw a remarkable response from the global conservation technology community, with a total of 523 applications submitted over the application period, more than double last year’s total of 251. This year’s submissions highlighted the creativity, expertise, and commitment driving innovation around the world. We were impressed by the outstanding quality of entries and the tangible impact project teams are delivering in the field.

We are incredibly grateful to every project team that took the time to apply. We know the significant effort required to develop a strong proposal, and we deeply appreciate the continued time, energy, and commitment that applicants bring to the WILDLABS Awards process. Each submission was carefully evaluated against our rigorous selection criteria and a final shortlist of projects was reviewed by our expert judging panel.

Before announcing this year’s winners, we would like to recognise the partners whose support makes the WILDLABS Awards possible. We are delighted to once again partner with Arm, the company building the future of computing, whose continued commitment to conservation technology is helping drive innovation across the sector. Arm is funding 16 projects this year, including eleven awards of $10,000 and five awards of $50,000, making this the WILDLABS Awards’ largest cohort to date.

By investing in conservation technology at a range of scales, our funding partners are helping project teams develop, test, and deploy solutions that can deliver meaningful conservation impact around the world.

Over the coming weeks, dedicated discussion threads will be published for each winning project. These spaces will give WILDLABS members the opportunity to learn more, engage directly with the teams, and explore the potential for future collaboration.

Meet the Winners

$50,000 Awardees

Arm-Based Island-Scale Tracking Network for Small-Scale Fisheries and Sea Turtle Coexistence 
@JuanPM @Alasdair 

Project: Deploying a low-cost, near real-time tracking system for artisanal fisheries in Cabo Verde to identify overlap between fishing activity and critical loggerhead sea turtle habitats

Location: Cape Verde

Scaling Non-Invasive AI Monitoring to Safeguard Endangered Humboldt Penguins in Peru 
@su2283 @maafervv 

Project: Building an AI-powered monitoring network for Humboldt penguins that delivers near real-time insights into breeding success across multiple colonies in Peru

Location: Peru

From Scent to Seizure: Standardizing Air Sampling for Canine Detection of Marine Wildlife Trafficking 
@lugao @Eric_Becker @MarkusBurgener 

Project: Developing a smart air-sampling sensor to help detection dogs identify trafficked marine wildlife products in shipping containers more efficiently and with stronger links to enforcement action

Location: South Africa

Completing the Adaptive Management Loop Using Eye in the Sky 
@cjk2113 @msafiri @jwall @jclare 

Project: Creating the first open, modular animal-borne acoustic biologging platform, enabling conservationists to monitor wildlife behaviour, disease, and human disturbance from the animal’s perspective

Location: Sub-Saharan Africa

A3EM: An Open Toolkit for Animal-Borne Adaptive Acoustic Ecological Monitoring 
@ledeczi @gwittemyer @jcturn3 @hedgecrw 

Project: Expanding the Eye in the Sky early-warning system, which uses GPS-tagged vultures as sentinels to detect poaching and wildlife poisoning across vast African landscapes in near real time

Location: United States

$10,000 Awardees

Testing Solar Power on an Automated Insect Monitoring System for Scalable Deployment in the Paraná Atlantic Forest 
@silbelliard @juanhurtado @hernansfig @ilaiker 

Project: Establishing the first long-term automated moth monitoring network in Argentina’s Atlantic Forest to track insect biodiversity and ecosystem change at scale

Location: Argentina

Cost-Effective Satellite Tagging of Sea Turtles Using Arribada Initiative Tags 
@APrat @Alasdair @janiceblumenthal @Jroche @jhardwick @tortugologa 

Project: Testing a new generation of low-cost satellite tags that could make sea turtle tracking more accessible and affordable for conservation programmes worldwide

Location: Cayman Islands

Open-Source Bioacoustic Classifiers for Western Amazonian Restoration, Built with Shuar Women 
@nicoschuldt 

Project: Empowering Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon to build bioacoustic AI tools that measure biodiversity recovery and support investment in traditional forest restoration practices

Location: Ecuador

Edge AI Bioacoustics: A Hardware-Aware Optimisation Framework for Invasive Species Detection 
@deligkarisk 

Project: Developing a real-time acoustic early-warning system to detect invasive frog and toad species across Japan’s Ryukyu Archipelago before they become established

Location: Japan

Assessment of Freshwater Fish Biodiversity along Large Altitudinal Gradients of Tropical Forest Streams Using an eDNA Metabarcoding Approach 
@chenlin3112 

Project: Validating environmental DNA (eDNA) as a non-invasive tool for monitoring endemic freshwater fish in Borneo’s mountain streams, helping improve biodiversity assessments in protected areas

Location: Malaysia

Bespoke Tracking Technologies for Advancing Pangolin Ecology Research 
@Carl_Emogor @echallita @mgarcia 

Project: Designing ultra-lightweight GPS tracking tags for African tree pangolins to better understand post-release survival, movement, and habitat use following wildlife trafficking rescues

Location: Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States

Años luz – A Bright Future For Open Biologging Tag Software 
@danisinc @gfo974 @carribada 

Project: Building a community-led bioacoustic monitoring system in Peru that transforms passive acoustic recordings into actionable biodiversity insights for conservation and Indigenous land management

Location: Peru

Indigenous-Led Bioacoustic Monitoring for Biodiversity Conservation and Local Value Generation in Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park, Peru 
@jgaryi @Hendrik_W 

Project: Creating a bilingual, open-source biologging app that simplifies wildlife tag deployment and makes conservation technology more accessible to Spanish-speaking practitioners

Location: Peru

Using Passive Acoustic Recording Units to Determine Cape Parrot Presence and Habitat Use in Limpopo

Project: Mapping habitat use, breeding hotspots, and forest condition for the critically threatened northern Cape Parrot, guiding conservation, restoration, and long-term management of Afrotemperate Mistbelt forests

Location: South Africa

A Scalable Intelligence Hub for Giraffe Conservation and Other Wildlife 
@courtneymarne 

Project: Developing TwigaTools, an automated intelligence platform that turns fragmented wildlife monitoring data into decision-ready insights for giraffe conservation across Africa

Location: Sub-Saharan Africa

AudioMoth Edge: Field-ready on-device sound recognition 
@alex_rogers @Andrew_Hill @PetePrince 

Project: Expanding the capabilities of AudioMoth by developing a new generation of devices that make edge AI bioacoustics more accessible to conservation practitioners

Location: United Kingdom

Looking ahead

Beyond celebrating individual achievements, the WILDLABS Awards programme aims to strengthen connections across the conservation technology community and help accelerate the adoption of impactful solutions. The projects recognised this year showcase not only technical innovation, but also the power of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community-driven problem solving in advancing conservation outcomes around the world.

The continued success of the programme would not be possible without the invaluable support of Arm. Beyond providing the core funding for this initiative, our funders played an integral role in the evaluation of applications, and the projects will have the opportunity to work with experts from Arm’s engineering team to enhance the implementation of their projects. We extend our sincere thanks to Arm for their ongoing commitment to the growth of this programme. 

We are exploring new opportunities to grow the WILDLABS Awards, and in 2027 we aim to further expand the programme's reach and impact. If you are interested in getting involved or supporting this initiative, we would love to hear from you.

We look forward to building on this momentum and to continuing to support a global community of adopters, scalers and innovators working at the intersection of technology and conservation.