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Funding and Finance / Feed

The number one problem in nature conservation is the need for more money or access to funding. This group aims to help all WILDLABS community members with funding and financing their projects. The group is called Funding and Finance to draw attention to the possibilities of funding (i.e., grants, awards, and other gifts)  and finance (loans and venture capital investment in nature conservation projects and start-ups). These topics should be seen in their wider contexts, including that of a project or organisation’s income or business model.

Group curators

discussion

WILDLABS Awards 2026: Statistics

Henry Rees

14 May 2026 5:17pm

With the judging process for the 2026 WILDLABS Awards now underway, we are excited to share a look at the statistics behind this year’s applications. We saw a remarkable...

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discussion

WILDLABS Awards 2026: Ask Your Questions!

Henry Rees

18 February 2026 8:44pm

With the support of Arm, the company building the future of computing, this year’s WILDLABS Awards will distribute $350,000 to advance conservation technology across 15 projects....

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Ana Sofía Nanni

30 March 2026 9:04pm

Hi! I was wondering if all applicants for the WILDLABS 2026 Awards EoI will receive a status notification, or only those invited to submit a full application?

Henry Rees

1 April 2026 9:59am

Hi Ana,

Thank you for your question. Everyone who applied will receive a notification of the status of their application. You should hear back within the next two weeks.

Many thanks,

Henry

Kosmas Deligkaris

23 April 2026 4:52am

Hi, would the direct costs be included in the awarded amount, or be in addition to it (i.e., $10,000 + overheads if accepted)?

Thank you

 

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discussion

Looking for opportunities in AI for Bioacoustics and Environmental Monitoring

Leonardo Mannini

6 April 2026 10:37am

Hi everyone,My name is Leonardo Mannini, and I’m an AI engineer with a strong interest in bioacoustics and conservation technology.I recently completed a research role at FBK (...

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Brent Pease

17 April 2026 1:19pm

Hi Leonardo,


Let’s chat! I potentially have some opportunities, collaborations or even short-term employment. Send me a message. 

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article

How to find collaborators for research or business

Frank van der Most

9 March 2026 11:03am

A relatively new member asked me this question. Since my answer was quite generic, and since others may have a similar question, I have rewritten it as an article. If you have additions or different experiences, please...

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Akiba

11 March 2026 9:22am

Great summary, Frank. I agree with and have experienced many of the points. I have asked and get asked for collaborations, but many people don't realize how big of a commitment it actually is. There are so many things that complicate it, ie: 

  • Who are you and do you work well in a collaboration. Certain types of people are lone cowboys/girls while others are add a huge amount of a value to a collaboration group.
  • Can they do what they say? Some people have a lot of skills but don't have a lot of time to do things promptly. Others are early in their career and may lack practical experience. Sometimes it's totally fine to collaborate with someone that is early career. In fact, they can often bring a lot of energy to things. In other cases, I've met early career people that are looking to prove themselves or have the "fake it til you make it" attitude which makes things difficult.
  • Is there complementary expertise? Two technical people getting together on a conservation project sometimes doesn't work out well because it's unbalanced. I think it's good to have a good balance of technology, domain expertise, and field practitioner.
  • Are the roles clear? Sometimes the ecologist wants to be the engineer or vice versa. Although there should be good learning on both sides, having clear roles makes things much simpler and avoids stepping on toes and a lot of confusion in the division of labor.
  • What happens to the intellectual property at the conclusion of the collaboration? This is a horrible thing to bring up at the beginning of the collaboration, but what if you make something that is commercially viable. Does it get split 50/50? Does it go open source? Does each participant own or have a license to freely use the collaboration IP? If there are commercial aspirations, it's best to lay that out at the beginning.
  • How does each party want themselves viewed in the collaboration? It's best to figure out early how each party wants to be credited in case you get press or publications.
  • What is the origin story? There are many projects that end up attracting a lot of attention. Then the people that started it have different origin stories that are often conflicting. The truth is that the origin story gets biased over time in everyone's mind so at some point, It's best to get together and agree on what the origin story will be.  The synchronization will save a lot of heartache and make it easy to put together a press kit or press release if you get to the point where it's getting written up.

All this isn't to discourage people from collaborations. A good collaboration can lead to great things and a lot of innovation. Each collaboration is an opportunity to create something innovative and impact the world. For us, collaborations are great and have led to amazing projects that we could have never pulled off alone. But it's always best to be aware of and head off the potential messy issues that may come up. 

Hope this helps anyone that wants to start a collaboration. I think it's best to balance casual-ness with awareness of the realities of where things may go.

Akiba  

Frank van der Most

12 March 2026 6:10pm

Hej Akiba!

What a great follow up on the article! Good to know that you share my insights and experiences. And more importantly, as becomes abundantly clear from your long addition, inviting someone, getting invited and accepting the invite is really still just the beginning, even after all the work done to become part of a community.

Lots of pitfalls, but warning and solving these issue is in part what WildLabs is for!

 

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discussion

Women in Conservation Forum (WiCF) 2nd March in Nairobi: GoFundMe platform

Macayle Rose Guerin

30 January 2026 5:14am

Hello all, We have set up a GoFundMe platform for Women in Conservation Forum. Our goal is to make the day as open and accessible as possible. We would greatly...

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Susan Chege Reuben

30 January 2026 10:52am

Hello Macayle

It is of great pleasure that there is this opportunity coming to East Africa. I would like to attend this. Do you have any recommendation for funding  a student to attend such a forum? I will share this opportunity with our East Africa WhatsApp group too.

Macayle Rose Guerin

2 February 2026 2:33am

Hi Susan, 

Thank you for your message. 

I apologise, but as we are a non-profit and mostly volunteer-run, we are presently unable to provide funding support to people to travel to Nairobi for the forum. 

Thank you for sharing WiCF with the whatsapp community; that’s lovely of you!

I can write up an official letter of invitation if that would help with a university bursary application, and WiCF attendees will receive a certificate of attendance for the day. 

I have a small invitation flyer; feel free to share this with others who may be interested. 

Kind regards,

Macayle 

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discussion

Interview request: conservation investment

Eden Flaherty

21 October 2025 10:20am

Hello everyone!I'm writing an article on institutional investment in conservation/nature and am looking to connect with projects who have been told they are "too small" to invest...

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Kim Hendrikse

4 November 2025 9:58am

Actually, I'd like to add, not only early stage startups, but some particular subset of early stage startups :)

None the less, a business model like Margo supplies is a more sustainable approach and that Marley has managed to do it for so long make's it an excellent candidate for an interview :-)

Frank van der Most

15 November 2025 8:05am

Hi Eden,

Perhaps you should also post your question in the 'Community base' group. It may give you a wider audience within WILDLABS. Just click on 'Edit' to edit your post and add the group in the box where you've picked Funding and Finance.

I am curious, for which medium are you writing your article?

'Too small' is one of the big roadblocks for investment in nature conservation. Do you see solutions for that problem, or do people that you're interviewing see them?

Peter Apps

29 November 2025 9:26am

Are you focussing on investment in the strict sense (i.e. put money in with the expectation of getting more money out) or are you also interested in donor funding (put money in with no expectation of getting any of it back again)?

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discussion

The Boring Fund 2025: Ask your questions!

Henry Rees and 2 more

2 July 2025 5:10pm

 The Boring Fund supports the essential but overlooked aspects of conservation technology. With the support of Arm, $80,000 in grants will go to critical, foundational...

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Henry Rees

29 September 2025 9:36am

Hi all,

Thank you for your questions and for your patience, we are preparing to contact applicants for The Boring Fund this week, we look forward to updating you soon.

Many thanks,

Henry

Maria Paula Rey Baquero

15 October 2025 1:28am

Hello! I hope you are well. 

I’m writing to you because I would like to know if the winners of Boring fund grant were announced. 

Regards, 
 

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discussion

What do you think about Nature-Credits?

Eugene Galaxy

19 September 2025 9:05am

European Commission released a roadmap this July, outlining their motivation and plans. Nature-credits, similar to carbon-credits, should reward (monetize) wildlife organizations...

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Akiba

26 September 2025 4:11am

I believe there are a few issues that are being grappled with in the nature/biodiversity credit initiatives that are being undertaken. One of them is the issue of fungibility, ie: for carbon markets, 1 ton of CO2 in the US is the same as 1 ton of CO2 in Bermuda. So the market can trade based on the principle of equivalency. 

To offset biodiversity loss, you would have to deal with this equivalency. For example, would 1 hectare of tropical forest in Indonesia being lost to palm plantations be equivalent to restoring 1 river in the Mekong and saving 5 tigers?

There are currently a few biodiversity credit initiatives going on right now and I recommend you talk or attend the calls for them. The BCA (Biodiversity Credit Alliance) has regular calls and is quite open to new members. I was discussing some of the biodiversity credit issues with the head of BCA at a conference in Bangkok and he is very interested in getting orgs and people that are active and enthusiastic about pushing the market forward. It's a bit slow to take off at the moment as I understand it.

Hope that helps.

Akiba

 

Eugene Galaxy

29 September 2025 7:09am

Spending more time exploring this topic, I've learned how the full "value chain" looks like:

  1. wildlife organisation / project developer -> credit receivers who own work/data
  2. nature-credit certifiers -> organisations that provide frameworks & rules to follow (Plan Vivo as one example)
  3. nature-credit auditors -> those who verify work done and allow/grant credits
  4. nature-credit registries -> where credits/projects are minted(listed)
  5. third-party analytics providers -> basically us(Animal Detect in close future), Okala, Sensing Clues, and other "data processing/visualisation" organisations. We are a middleman between wildlife organisations and certifiers, ensuring the results are shaped to follow certifier-guidelines. 

 

So I can count at least 5 "hands" the credits need to pass to be born in to existance. 

Eugene Galaxy

29 September 2025 7:18am

Not a bad idea to join the BCA calls, will look into it.

I agree it is more difficult to come up with a standardize unit of measurement for biodiversity, and this will probably slowdown the whole process. There are a few nature-credit certifiers who come with their own methodology for measuring it, and according to their claims - they strive to make it more generic (meaning: one report should ± fit all certification methodologies). Lets see how it will turn out.

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discussion

Anyone using InVEST?

Elsa

10 July 2025 1:31pm

InVEST 3.16.0 has been release! with a new Plugin feature. From the InVEST Workbench users can install a 3rd party InVEST-like model which can be...

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Elsa

23 September 2025 6:23pm

Thanks John! We'd love to try out different models for scenario planning in the future so may reach out.

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discussion

Suggestions for research funds

Manuel Sánchez-Nivicela

10 August 2025 5:56pm

Dear Colleagues,I hope this message finds you well. I am Manuel Sánchez Nivicela., an independent ornithology researcher based in Ecuador, focusing on South American bird species...

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Frank van der Most

19 September 2025 8:15am

Hi Manuel,

Perhaps at this one Neotropical Birding and Conservation Fund

Also, the About page of the Funding and Finance Group has a list of resources that may help you find funding.

Perhaps you've found the page in the meantime. Sorry for my late reply. I was on holidays when you wrote and had overlooked your post after my return

cheers

Frank

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article

The Boring Fund 2025 Statistics

Henry Rees

17 September 2025 6:57pm

In August/September 2025 we ran the 2025 edition of The Boring Fund, the fund that supports the essential but overlooked aspects of conservation technology. While we expected there to be significant demand, this year we...

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Frank van der Most

18 September 2025 8:51am

Thanks for the stats' @HRees ! I'm curious what kind of data management and mobilisation platforms applicants are using? And what boring stuff they need the money for? Like, hosting, license costs or development? 

Daniel O Salami

23 September 2025 9:26pm

I consider data work more boring than any other conservation technology and we have a substantial number of project in taht category. This statistics is really useful and impressive 

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