The National Geographic Society awards project grants to individuals who lead the work, and it now runs that funding through targeted requests for proposals rather than a standing open call. Each call sets its own scope — a place, a question or a theme — along with its own budget parameters, eligibility rules, geographic focus and deadline. Funded work spans science, conservation, storytelling, education and technology, and has to sit inside at least one of six focus areas: Ocean, Land, Wildlife, Human Histories and Cultures, Planetary Health, and Space.
Grantees join the Society’s Explorer community, which adds training, tools and storytelling reach on top of the money. The Society counts more than 16,000 grants awarded since its founding in 1888. One call is open at present: Understanding Ecosystem Dynamics and the Ecology of the Okavango River Basin, closing 23 September 2026.
Benefits & funding
- A grant paid for a defined project, awarded to the individual who leads it.
- Award size, project length and allowable costs are fixed by each call. The Society publishes no standing award tiers that apply across the programme.
- Work in any of six focus areas is fundable: Ocean, Land, Wildlife, Human Histories and Cultures, Planetary Health, and Space.
- Beyond funding, the Society offers its Explorer network, training and tools, and platforms that carry grantees’ work to a wider audience.
- A downloadable budget guidelines document sets out how a proposal budget should be built.
- The open call supports scientific research on ecological dynamics — structure and function — in the Okavango River Basin across Angola, Namibia and Botswana. No award figure for it is published on the grants page.
Eligibility
- Applicants must be 18 or older.
- The person who will carry out the project writes the application and is named as the project leader.
- An applicant may hold only one project-leader proposal at a time.
- Anyone who has held a previous Society grant must submit that project’s final report and media before applying to lead a new one.
- The proposed project start date must fall at least six months after the call’s submission deadline.
- Each call carries additional eligibility rules and its own geographic focus; the rules published on that call’s page govern.
- The Society sets no nationality, residency or degree requirement at programme level.
- A strong understanding of and connection to the local context of the work is a stated preference in review. It bars no one from applying.
- Grantmaking follows US and UK anti-bribery and anti-corruption law and US sanctions and export-control rules.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
Age requirement
≥ 18 yrs
Circlebreaker is a free database of global fellowships, scholarships and programs — every one decoded like this.
We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.
Application process
- 1Browse the open requests for proposals on the Society grants page and pick the call that fits the project.
- 2Create an account on the National Geographic Society funding portal.
- 3Open that call inside the portal and complete its application.
- 4Submit through the portal before the call’s deadline.
Program timeline
Informational webinar for the Okavango River Basin call
Sep 1, 2026
Okavango River Basin call closes
Sep 23, 2026
earliest permitted project start for that call, under the six-month rule
From 2027-03
Ongoing
further calls are posted as the Society sets new priorities; no fixed annual calendar is published