Wildlife Disease Association Challenge Grant

Challenge Aims

In partnership with Experiment, the Wildlife Disease Association is calling for research proposals in the area of wildlife health and disease.

The call is open to all wildlife disease researchers worldwide. The Wildlife Disease Association is particularly interested in work on the following diseases:

• small ruminant rinderpest and other morbiliviruses
• chythrid disease
• white-nose syndrome
• chronic wasting disease
• autoimmune diseases
• tuberculosis
• rabies
• insect or bat borne viral diseases
• any wildlife population health problems of anthropogenic origin
• wildlife zoonoses
• diseases that threaten survival of free-ranging species or discrete populations

Experiment is the largest crowdfunding platform for scientific research with a funding success rate of 44%. Experiment's mission is to democratize the research process so anyone can do science. The average budget of a successful proposal is $4,000. This funding mechanism is commonly used by graduate students paired with a faculty member, but is not required.

The call for proposal will last for 31 days from July 1, 2018 until August 1, 2018. Proposals should be submitted directly on the Experiment site at experiment.com/grants/WDA.

Proposals submitted for the call will be approved or rejected by August 7th and launched on August 21st for a 30 day campaign. Projects will be promoted by Experiment, WDA and allied organizations.

During the 30 day campaign participants will be expected to share the projects with their networks. WDA will sponsor 5 prizes.

$1,000 will be awarded to the project with the most number of donors on the 20th day. 
$500 will be awarded to the project with the second most number of donors on the 20th day.
Four additional $100 prizes will be awarded to the top 4 crowd supported proposals whose author(s) are WDA members on the 30th day of the campaign.

Previously funded wildlife disease projects:

Why are some bats naturally immune to White-nose Syndrome?
Can we stop amphibian extinction by increasing immunity to the frog chytrid fungus?
Do birds carry Lyme disease?

About Wildlife Disease Association:

In March 1951, a group of 28 U.S. and Canadian scientists interested in wildlife diseases founded the Wildlife Disease Committee, which became the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA), a 501 non-profit organization. The mission of WDA is to acquire, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the health and diseases of wild animals in relation to their biology, conservation, and interactions with humans and domestic animals.