On June 5, World Environment Day, FUNBIO, the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, and Instituto Humanize launched the second edition of the program “FUNBIO Grants—Conserving the Future”, which provides field-research support to master’s degree and PhD students in the form of grants worth R$20 thousand and R$38 thousand, respectively. The grants are awarded to projects addressing any of the following themes:

(1) Conservation, sustainable management and use of fauna and flora;
(2) Landscape and degraded-area recovery;
(3) Territorial management for biodiversity protection;
(4) Climate change and biodiversity conservation.

In 2019, the projects will be chosen by a committee of specialists as per a three-stage eliminatory process: (i) registration and thematic sorting; (ii) analysis of the research project, letters of recommendation and level of interest shown by the applicants; and (iii) final classification of the best projects.  In 2018, 29 proposals were selected from 600 entries.

“FUNBIO Grants – Conserving the Future” launches annual calls for projects and provides a stimulus for homegrown scientific and technological research. The program values diversity, so grants are distributed nationwide. The committee sits equal contingents of men and women.

“For FUNBIO, it is extremely gratifying to support a researcher’s forays into the field, contributing to their academic formation and driving scientific research in Brazil. The program generates knowledge in order to break paradigms and move forward.”

(Rosa Lemos de Sá, FUNBIO’s Secretary-General)

“After a considerable number of entries and excellent results from the first cycle of FUNBIO Grants—Conserving the Future, we are committed to supporting this initiative. We believe in the importance of investing in the academic training of a new generation of professionals and researchers who will pursue careers engaged in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity”.

(Georgia Pessoa, Executive Director of Instituto Humanize)