Request for Proposals to fund Expert Teams Delivering Rapid Solutions to Critical Challenges

SNAPP, a first-of-its-kind scientific joint venture between The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), is a tool for developing sustainable solutions to global conservation challenges. Since inception, SNAPP, through its working groups, has provided science and user-friendly tools backed by hard data to identify and quantify nature’s role and value in preventing and solving some of the most complex challenges the world faces around food and water security, climate change, and energy.

Funding Information

• Each year, SNAPP provides up to US $1 million total across 4-6 approved working groups, led by academic, governmental agency, multilateral, or nonprofit institutions.
• SNAPP funds teams of 12-15 people from diverse organizations to gather for 3-4 collaborative sessions over the course of 12-24 months. Between sessions, members collaborate remotely; work with long-term implementation partners; identify emerging opportunities for tangible, lasting change; develop and test tools and products; and publish research.

What They Can and Cannot Fund?

• SNAPP welcomes all proposals! Here is a list of what we can and cannot fund to help you determine if your project is a good fit for SNAPP funding.
• They fund:
  • Working groups
  • Salary, benefits and other direct costs of postdoctoral researchers and research assistants
  • Independent contractors or the actual time of employees conducting analysis, graphic design, web development, and similar activities for the working group
  • Virtual and in-person meetings, including third-party neutral facilitators, meeting planners, hotel, catering, meeting venue and technology, as well as individual attendee travel expenses
• Among what they cannot fund:
  • Salary for Principal Investigators
  • Primary data collection or fieldwork unless clearly justified to fill a critical gap in an existing dataset (should be no more than 5-10% of the total budget)
  • Equipment, vehicles, building infrastructure
  • Lobbying
  • Research without a direct link to implementation and vice versa
  • Overhead or indirect costs
• SNAPP recognizes that items they cannot fund may be legitimate and necessary part of your research and implementation expenses. They provide this reference to help you self-select if SNAPP is the right fit for you.

Proposals Evaluation Criteria

• Mission Relevance: The question(s) that the proposal will address is clearly at the intersection of sustainable economic development, human well-being and nature conservation.
• Urgency: It is clear why this question(s) is critically important right now, and how the work will add value both to current state of knowledge and other work currently underway in this area.
• Interdisciplinary Science: The proposed methods are inclusive of both biophysical and socioeconomic sciences, and datasets or sources of information the applicant anticipates using for this project are comprehensive and appropriate.
• Short-term Outcomes: The proposal presents SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) objectives that articulate the project’s expected outcomes through the funding period.
• Long-term Outcomes: The plan for ongoing implementation of the work after the SNAPP working group concludes is well-articulated. Implementation partners (e.g., TNC, WCS, and/or other conservation and sustainable development/humanitarian organizations) are clearly committed to working toward longer-term outcomes based on the project’s outputs and outcomes.
• Diversity: The group composition includes confirmed members representing diversity in sectors and disciplines. This is a collaborative effort with no one or two organizations dominating. Group demographics and experiences are varied and inclusive of the Global South and other groups less dominant in academic literature.
• Efficiency: The proposal presents a well-justified argument for cost-effective use of SNAPP funding.
• Unique Contribution: Describes how this work may build on a previous SNAPP working group(s) or occupies a niche that has not yet been explored by a SNAPP working group.

For more information, visit Science for Nature and People Partnership.