Grants and Awards

2024 Biodiversity Institute Grant open to applications February 12 to March 22, 2024.

The Biodiversity Institute enhances and supports research across the University community and beyond through an array of research grants, faculty, museum, and facility collaborations, and statewide partnerships. 

The Biodiversity Institute grant programs are funded and managed by the Institute to support basic and applied research, and projects that communicate the scope and value of biodiversity research happening at the University of Wyoming to the public. 

The Biodiversity Institute currently supports three grant programs:

• The Biodiversity Institute's Biodiversity Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grants provide financial support to UW graduate students conducting innovative and high-impact research on topics related to biodiversity in departments across the University. Successful conservation of biological diversity requires both basic and applied research to better inform current and future policy decisions. Because graduate students are a major engine of biodiversity research at UW, the Biodiversity Institute (BI) provides grants to enhance or expand ongoing graduate student research in any field related to biodiversity. 
• The Biodiversity Institute's Novel Outreach and Education Grant program supports exceptionally innovative approaches to science outreach, engagement, and education. The program is designed to fund activities that communicate scientific knowledge of how biodiversity is generated, maintained, and restored, and the impacts of biological diversity on human well-being. The Novel Outreach and Education Grant program has replaced the Biodiversity in Art grant program which was offered for 6 years, between 2013 and 2018, and distributed grants to graduate students and faculty. Successful conservation of biological diversity requires the support of an informed and actively engaged public. Public support for biodiversity and its conservation may be increased by providing compelling and relevant evidence of the impact of biodiversity on ecosystem services and human well-being. 
• The Richard Baldes Native American Excellence Fund Award: Native American students who are doing biodiversity research relevant to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho will be prioritized for this funding. Applicants must demonstrate that they have a relationship and approval to do the research with either tribe.