Apply for New England Biolabs Foundation’s Grant Program

Deadline: 20-Aug-21

The New England Biolabs Foundation’s (NEBF) grant program to foster community-based conservation of landscapes and seascapes and the bio-cultural diversity found in these places.

The Foundation recognizes that the natural and cultural values of landscapes and seascapes are inextricably linked, and that indigenous and local communities play a fundamental role in their stewardship.

Thematic Areas

The Foundation supports communities in the stewardship of their landscapes and seascapes and the associated bio-cultural diversity, ecosystem services, and food-ways. They welcome inquiries from community-based nonprofit organizations working toward:

Conserving biological diversity (terrestrial and marine).
Sustaining cultural diversity (linguistic diversity, as well as traditional knowledge systems and practices).
Maintaining ecosystem services (water, soil, and carbon sequestration).
Supporting food sovereignty and economic vitality of local communities.
In the marine environment, sustaining healthy reefs and fisheries.

In addition, in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts, they support projects in the area of artistic expression that, at their core, serve the mission of protecting the environment or fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the communities. This can include a variety of arts-based projects that raise awareness or catalyze action.

Funding Information

Starting in 2021, international grants will range from $5,000 to $15,000 and local grants will range from $4,000 to $10,000.

Approaches

The Foundation supports community-based projects that seek to meet their objectives in a variety of ways. Among the kinds of approaches they support are those concerned with:

Creating and/or ensuring effective management and governance of protected areas, including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), in particular where governance is led by communities (e.g., Indigenous Peoples’ and Community-Conserved Areas and Territories [ICCAs]).
Ecological restoration involving native species. Priority will be given to those efforts linked to existing conservation areas already valued by communities (for example, a project to re-establish a forested buffer zone near a sacred grove).
Providing enhanced and alternative local livelihoods, including sustainable agriculture and value-added products to support local economies.
Environmental education that draws on indigenous and local traditions and language to address present-day problems.
Use of the arts and other innovative methods to convey social and environmental messages.
Fostering civic engagement of communities through creative facilitation and other methods of stakeholder involvement (such as, public meetings and community-mapping exercises).

Geographic Focus

The Foundation encourages proposals for community-based projects in settings where the small grants can make a big impact. Because they are a small foundation, they must limit the grants to specific countries and are unable to consider requests from areas outside of the geographic focus.

International Grants: The Foundation is actively funding projects in the following regions and target landscapes:
- Central America
  - In Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras:
    - Coastal landscapes/seascapes within the Gulf of Honduras and the Bay Islands
  - In Nicaragua:
    - Southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua, including Lake Nicaragua
    - Northern Caribbean coast within Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region
- Andean South America
  - Sacred Valley of the Incas, extending from Ollantaytambo to Pisac in the Southern Andes of Peru
  - In Bolivia, that portion of the Altiplano extending from Lake Titicaca to Lake Poopó, and beyond to Sucre
  - Andes-Amazon Basin of Ecuador and Peru
- West Africa
  - In Ghana:
    - Weto Landscape/Togo Plateau in the southern part of the Togo-Atakora Mountains in Ghana
    - Black Volta Basin in the Upper West region of Ghana
  - In Cameroon:
    - Highland landscapes of Southwest Cameroon
U.S. Grants: While the foundation’s emphasis is on working internationally, they do fund a limited number of local projects in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Restrictions

New England Biolabs Foundation grants are limited to organizations that hold charitable status in their country. Eligible organizations must operate on a not-for-profit basis and stand by a mission to benefit local communities.

The Foundation does not typically fund: