The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ) is accepting applications to provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives, recognise leaders in the field and raise the profile of species in the wider conservation debate.

You have until next Thursday, 30 June, to submit an application to this fund, which aims to support projects that contribute to the conservation of plant, animal and fungal species, without discrimination based on the region or species selected.

Grants will be awarded on the basis of their ability to fulfil criteria predetermined by the Species Fund and are a maximum of 25,000 dollars for each project.

Eligibility Criteria

• Anyone directly involved in species conservation can apply to the Fund for a grant

• The Fund will consider grants for the conservation of any endangered or little-known animal, plant or fungal species

• Depending on the type of conservation project and the work involved, the Fund will consider covering salary expenses or travel costs for a specific project. This will normally be for support staff in developing countries. However, this can only be part of the overall grant as officially requested. The Fund will not consider grant applications that only cover salary or travel costs.

• The Fund aims to be as flexible as possible when analysing applications and to take as many different factors into account when assessing the merit of a suggested project. To support this and try to rationalise the application process, the review process is kept relatively simple.

• Applications must be submitted in English.

• Generally, the Fund is mainly interested in providing support for in situ conservation work in the field (such as survey work and data collection, direct action, recovery management, training and the like), focussing on species in their natural habitat. However, the importance of ex situ work (genetic analysis, seminars, ex situ populations, etc.) is also recognised, so some grants may be awarded to projects that focus on ex situ conservation work in certain circumstances.

• Main costs: The Fund will not contribute to an organisation's core running costs or administrative expenses, yet it recognises that sometimes salaries, allowances, per diems and project-related living costs can be a vital part of in situ conservation work.

• Species: Generally, the Fund prefers to support projects centred on a single species, but it also recognises that in some geographical and taxonomic circumstances it makes more sense to group a number of species together.

For more information on how to to apply visit this site.