Featured News
Latest News
Latest News
Showing 1-5 of 100
Press Release
National Geographic Explorers Drive Change Through Collaborative Grant Program
The National Geographic Society has announced $1.5 million in funding for 10 projects around the globe as part of its Meridian grant program
The National Geographic Society flag celebrates Explorers' work to clean a beach of sargassum in southeastern Puerto Rico as part of their 2021 Society-funded Meridian project. Photo Credit: Laura Rodriguez
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 15, 2025) — The National Geographic Society has announced $1.5 million in funding for 10 projects around the globe as part of its Meridian grant program. These grants support two or more National Geographic Explorers — individuals who have previously received funding from the Society — who combine their expertise, ingenuity and commitment to a particular issue to influence lasting change.
The Society recognizes the immense value of collaboration, connection and co-creation with local communities when developing solutions to our planet’s most pressing challenges. The Meridian grant program was formed to help foster this interdisciplinary collaboration and encourage innovative Explorers across fields of study to work with each other and external groups to achieve the greatest impact.
“The curious, passionate and solution-oriented leaders that make up the National Geographic Explorer community represent a diversity of backgrounds,” said Alex Moen, the chief explorer engagement officer at the Society. “This global network shares a commitment to making the world a better place, and by working together, drawing on the multiple perspectives and expertise each individual offers, our collective impact is amplified.”
Since 2021, the Society has awarded over $5 million in funding to 55 Meridian projects carried out by more than 200 Explorers. This year’s selected projects, chosen from a competitive pool of over 80 applications, will draw on the expertise of 36 Explorers from 11 countries.
Mirroring the Society’s mission, four of this year’s project teams plan to use the power of science and storytelling to conserve vulnerable ecosystems across the globe.
- Explorers Tarin Toledo-Aceves, Andrea Villarreal Rodríguez, Markus Martinez Burman, Silvia Alvarez-Clare and Marco Molina will collaborate with small landholders to conserve old-growth cloud forest tree species in La Antigua watershed, Veracruz, Mexico.
- Explorers Marcelo L. Rheingantz, André Vieira, Luísa Genes, Pablo Montaño and Daniel Venturini will use conservation and storytelling to emphasize the significance of Brazil’s Tijuca Forest to Rio de Janeiro’s past, present and future urban residents, and advocate for its preservation.
- Explorers Eshika Fyzee and Niharika Rajput will use education and storytelling to engage students and community members in India’s Kutch district on the ecological, social and cultural significance of the critically endangered Asiatic caracal.
- Explorers Radhika Bhargava Gajre and Alisha Vasudev will center community perspectives and research through geospatial and visual data collection and storytelling to address climate change challenges and adaptations along the coast of Konkan, India.
Emphasizing the importance of collaboration with communities whose perspectives may have been historically overlooked, these project teams in North America plan to document and share authentic stories.
- Explorers Alicia Odewale, Justin Dunnavant, Clinton Johnson, Nick Okafor, Kristi Williams and James Edward Mills will work collaboratively with descendant community leaders, historians, forestry experts and educators in Oklahoma, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands to build the first living Global Black Heritage Tree Map documenting generations of Black freedom stories.
- By request of a community knowledge keeper, Explorers Vivian Giang and Maggie Lemere will support Stoney Nakota youth to tell their stories as they journey through history and reconnect to the Oceti Ŝakowiŋ (Seven Council Fires) across Canada and the U.S.
- In Alaska, Explorers Lauren E. Eckert, Andrew Szabo, Amy Romer, Brian Skerry, Martin van Aswegen and Andrea Reid — supported in part by the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund — will study the effect of the recent increase in gray whale predation of Pacific herring eggs in Sitka Sound to directly fill pressing data gaps that diverse Sitka community partners and ecosystem managers identified as needing to aid their marine stewardship, decision-making and community initiatives.
Additionally, project teams are combining their expertise to study, document and develop solutions to urgent challenges facing the environment.
- Explorers Prashant Mohesh and Heather Koldewey will document and share how plastic pollution affects St. Brandon, a highly isolated archipelago in Mauritius that is a Key Biodiversity Area.
- Explorers Nick St.Oegger, Iva Njunjić and Matej Vucić will conduct a biodiversity survey of the understudied karst rivers and caves in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are threatened by a large hydropower project that could negatively impact the wildlife in this area where many endemic species exist.
- Explorers Ariel Waldman, Erin Pettit and Prem Gill will test innovative technology to demonstrate the complex role icebergs play in the Antarctic environment.
Previous recipients of Meridian grants have designed award-winning virtual reality technology demonstrating the impacts of climate change, solved the decades-old puzzle behind the namesake of an elementary school in the Philippines, and examined the history of criminalization of Indigenous fishers in the Salish Sea. This year’s grant recipients will continue to make an impact in support of the Society’s mission to use the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.
Media Contact
General Media Contact
If you are a member of the media with an inquiry or interview request, please call during regular business hours or email
pressroom@ngs.org
pressroom@ngs.org
(202) 857 7027
May Champagne
Manager, Explorer Communications, Strategic Communications
amayrianne@ngs.org
amayrianne@ngs.org
About The National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 15,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content.
To learn more, visit www.nationalgeographic.org or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Back to Top