Early Career Grants are designed to offer less experienced individuals an opportunity to lead a project.

Grant projects last one calendar year or less. If you apply for more than one year of funding, your proposal will be sent back to you to revise and resubmit for the next deadline. Projects are typically funded for US $5,000 and cannot exceed US $10,000.

There is no maximum age limit for Early Career Grant applicants. However, applicants must be at least 18 years old at the time of application submission. Applicants are not required to have an advanced degree. Anyone with more than five years of professional experience in the field of their project focus does not qualify for an Early Career Grant and should apply for an Exploration Grant instead.

All applicants must be at least 18 years old at the time they submit an application. There is no upper age limit for Early Career Grants. However, if you have more than five years of full-time, professional experience in the field of your project focus, you do not qualify for an Early Career Grant. 

We encourage applications from around the world. If you are planning to work outside of your home country or community, you must include the name and contact information for at least one local collaborator as a project team member in the application. Please note that the National Geographic Society does not assist with visas. 

As a result of changes in Chinese law effective January 1, 2017, the National Geographic Society is unable to support new grantee work in mainland China. 

You are prohibited from engaging in any grant-funded work with any individual or organization who is on the Specially Designated National (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Treasury. Again, please work with your legal counsel if you have any questions.

• freshman
• sophomore
• junior
• senior
• graduate

• US Citizen
• Permanent Resident
• International or Other Visa Status
• Undocumented

The online application can be found on website: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/grants/grant-opportunities/

Onboarding

If you are awarded a grant, we'll need a few documents and materials from you to get your grant started and release funds. Please review the individual grant agreement or institutional grant agreement you will sign if awarded funding. All your onboarding documents and requirements can be found in the Resources section of the Grants Portal.  

Reporting

During the application process you will be asked to add and categorize the expected results and outputs of your project. If your grant is awarded, you will be expected to report back on these results at the time of your final report.

If you don't find the answer to your question on the YEG website, Please email the question to the fund you are applying to: cre@ngs.org, conservationtrust@ngs.org, or ecouncil@ngs.org. Please remember to include Young Explorers Grant in the subject line.