We are currently building our core Thematic Collaboration Clusters (TCCs), which are (and will be) our set of long-term projects that form the basis for us to support scientists and conservationists who are in-between positions (and, therefore, collaborations). Right now those groups include: Coral Reefs, Fisheries & Aquaculture, Coastal Resilience and Restoration, Invasive Species, Reptile & Amphibian Conservation, and Tropical Forests. The upper limit is, well, there is no upper limit. We'll keep being the glue between labs and organizations in order to make big, collaborative science and conservation projects happen.
In that process of building grants and project support infrastructure, we are applying for funding through a LOT of different funding sources. We keep coming across this gem in the FAQs of funding opportunities (paraphrased):
Individual grants are not supported - you must have fiscal sponsorship of a non-profit, university, or have an affiliation with one of those.
How do you move forward if you are unaffiliated? Our experience is, that it is extremely difficult.
While granting to individuals comes with additional grant reporting costs, and provisions for insurance and accounting, it is not impossible - and it improves diversity and inclusion in science and conservation. So, we decided to BECOME that affiliation for folks. Send us an email at our info@remoteecologist.org with your CV and ecologically-related interests (one paragraph, please), and we will see how we can best serve you. You get to just focus on the project, while we provide errors & omissions (E&O) insurance, accounting for your grants, a non-profit affiliation, and colleagues. We all get to build a better network to support scientists and conservationists in a field with little safety net. All grants are transferrable after a year of management, and we're happy to be a secondary affiliation if you get a full-time gig (rather than building one with us - that's ok too!).
