Grants and Awards

The Paddy Pallin Foundation and the Royal Zoological Society of NSW are offering Science Grants, worth up to $10,000 each, supporting field-based, high quality ecological research.

The objective of the grant program is to provide financial support for conservation‐based research of Australian ecosystems that will ultimately lead to tangible outcomes for management. The scope of the research is open to terrestrial, marine and freshwater research on animals, and/or plants and ecological communities.

The grants are open to postgraduate students and Early Career Researchers (with less than 3 years of research related experience since conferral of PhD, excluding research career interruptions). Applications will be accepted from early June and funding commences in November. The grant will be administered through the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales.

​Grant Conditions

Applicants must be either enrolled or have an academic position (including adjunct/visiting positions) at an Australian University or research position at a relevant institution - e.g., CSIRO or a museum.

Applicants must be financial members of the RZS NSW to apply for a Paddy Pallin Science Grant, and successful applicants must continue to be financial members of the RZS NSW for the life of the grant.

The research must address conservation problems in Australian systems and have clearly defined management implications. Preference will be given to research which deals with ecological community processes.

The work should have the potential to lead to publication in high quality ecological or conservation journals.

Details of the successful projects each year will be summarised on the RZS NSW and Paddy Pallin Foundation websites.

A short report of the project is required at the end of Year 1 and a final report after 18‐24 months suitable for posting on the above websites.

It is expected that the successful grant winner would present the outcomes of their research at a public lecture within 18-24 months of award date. A video summary of the project would be appreciated in order to update funders on the outcome of the funding; this may be posted on the Foundation’s and partners websites.

Conference travel is not supported.

University or research institutional on-costs are not supported.

Applicants are free to apply for funding regardless of whether they have been successful in previous years, but only one grant will be awarded for any single project (i.e., successful applicants can only apply for future grants for a different project).

Application Process

Applications should be submitted as a SINGLE PDF and contain the following:

• Completed cover sheet.
• A 200 word lay person summary of the project outlining the background, significance and management outcomes of the project.
• Research proposal structured under the following headings: Aims and Background, Significance of the research (including conservation significance), Methodology, and Management Implications of the work (max. 3 pages, excluding references).
• The proposal should also include an itemized budget with brief justification for each item, a short description of the research environment at host institution and the names, details of research funding already received (project title, funding body and amount), and the contact details of 2 referees (max. 2 pages).
• If the project is part of a bigger project (or requires funding >$10,000) the proposal must outline how the Paddy Pallin Science Grant is essential and how the work will be done should other funding applications elsewhere be unsuccessful.
• Brief CV including qualifications, summary of research/professional experience, publications/presentations (max. 2 pages).
• A letter from the Head of Department or Head of Research Unit indicating that such a research proposal can be carried out within the Department and that any animal ethics issues have been or will be resolved.

Applications must be emailed in PDF format to office@rzsnsw.org.au and received by the Executive Officer of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW by midnight on the 31st August. Late applications will not be considered.

A subcommittee comprising members of the council of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and representatives of the Paddy Pallin Science Grants funders will assess applications and the decision of the subcommittee is final. Applicants will be notified by email of the outcomes of the grant by mid November. Funding will then be provided on a staged basis; $7000 upon acceptance and provision of photos and a media friendly summary, a further $2000 after completion of progress report after 12 months and the final $1000 after submission of a final report (at 18-­24 months depending on project).

Enquiries? Please contact us.

Past awardees