Whether you are an aspiring Explorer or already a luminary in the field, each opportunity has unique criteria and benefits to ensure that our Explorers receive support and funding aligned to their specific needs and goals. Each year, a small number of grants are awarded to individuals who are just beginning their National Geographic journey, as well as those who are working on more advanced projects.
The National Geographic Society warmly welcomes and encourages applicants from historically and currently underrepresented and underserved populations to apply. National Geographic is committed to funding a diverse and globally representative cohort of Explorers. The National Geographic Society does not discriminate on the basis of race, religious creed, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, or handicap.
We award grants to individuals working on bold, innovative, and transformative projects in science, conservation, storytelling, education, & technology that align with one or more of our focus areas:
- Ocean
- Land
- Wildlife
- Human History and Cultures
- Human Ingenuity
Freshwater Storytelling: Request for Proposals
The National Geographic Society, in partnership with the Conrad Hilton Foundation’s Safe Water Initiative, invites proposals from storytellers to create and disseminate content that raises public awareness about sustainable freshwater use. This initiative seeks to illuminate global freshwater challenges, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Western Asia, and the Middle East. Projects can take various forms, including photography, film, and data visualization. They should focus on issues faced by communities, such as last mile households, low-income households, women and girls, and children, in achieving equitable access to freshwater. Applications are also encouraged for projects that highlight specific solutions to these challenges, and elevate the voices of individuals, organizations and communities at the forefront. The deadline for submissions is April 22, 2025.
Spatial Thinking: Request for Proposals
The National Geographic Society invites proposals that identify a challenge related to a specific place and its unique conditions and leverages an educational solution using spatial thinking to enable people to act on behalf of our planet and its people. Spatial thinking involves visualizing, interpreting, and reasoning information using location, patterns, scale, relationships, movement, and change over time in order to understand our world and develop impactful solutions. Applications are encouraged to make connections across disciplines to identify creative solutions through interdisciplinary methods, use experiential learning, and define spatial thinking broadly to engage learners (of any age, in any setting) in understanding a place’s unique conditions and inspiring people to take positive action for our planet and its people. The deadline for submissions is May 5, 2025.
The Big Questions: Request for Proposals
Curiosity is at the heart of humanity. The drive to better understand the mysteries of our world has invited storytellers to illuminate groundbreaking knowledge and the world’s wonders, and brought us closer together. Supported by the John Templeton Foundation, The National Geographic Society seeks innovative photography, short film, writing, data visualization and other storytelling proposals to delve into some of these big questions – questions we’ve wrestled with for millenia, and questions that are only just emerging. In its highest form, storytelling has the power to disseminate knowledge, prompt deep conversation and spark curiosity around the greatest questions of our time. The Big Questions on human flourishing, structures of reality and origins of life are key to understanding humankind’s purpose and place within the universe. These projects should in some way work to explore one of the following three questions: 1) What does it mean to be human? 2) Curiosity: What are the boundaries of Earth, or more precisely, what are the limits to what we can understand? 3) Human/Nature: What is the relationship between the human and natural worlds? The deadline for submissions is June 24, 2025.
If you are working to establish yourself in your field, hope to gain experience leading projects, are interested in joining the National Geographic Explorer community, and have not yet received a grant from the National Geographic Society*, you may apply for a Level I Grant. Funding requests at this level can be up to USD $20,000. Projects can be up to one year in length, although projects with “Technology” as the primary focus can be up to two years.
If you are more established in your field, have previously received a National Geographic Society grant, or are seeking a higher level of funding, you may apply for a Level II Grant. You are not required to have previously received a National Geographic Society grant to apply for this opportunity. These grants are highly competitive and reserved for select projects that push boundaries to achieve significant and tangible impact in your field. Projects can be up to two years long. Level II Grant recipients receive funding up to $100,000. Smaller requests will be accommodated and will not be more or less competitive. At this funding level, grantees will provide mentorship to others within the Explorer community, contribute their expertise, and may participate in relevant speaking engagements upon request.