Developing Future Ocean Stewards

How does the ocean shape your life? How do you shape the ocean?

The ocean functions as Earth’s primary life support system. It produces half the oxygen we breathe, regulates our global climate, and sustains the livelihoods of over 3 billion people. Yet, human activities are putting our ocean in serious danger. Pollution and unsustainable industrial practices are damaging ocean habitats that are crucial for climate regulation, sustaining marine biodiversity, and supporting the global blue economy.

To combat this, we need to promote “Ocean Literacy” – an understanding of the ocean’s influence on humanity and humanity’s influence on the ocean. The knowledge-deficit model of ocean literacy assumes that increasing public education and awareness about the marine environment will lead to pro-ocean actions. However, it has not sparked large-scale behavior change.

Education without emotional resonance does not move people to act. To save our ocean, we have to expand what it means to be ocean literate. We need to foster and support ocean stewards: people who feel connected to the ocean and take responsibility for enacting change in their communities.

What we aim to fund with this call

The National Geographic Society aims to invest in ocean literacy by funding projects that focus on community-based projects that help people form strong emotional bonds with the ocean and develop or deepen a sense of ocean identity through immersive learning experiences. These projects will address the socioeconomic, psychological, cultural, and physical barriers to developing or embodying an ocean connection. This call values a “one water system” perspective, which emphasizes the fundamental understanding that all water on Earth is interconnected. As such, we aim to reach populations who are often excluded from conservation dialogues. Through these projects, learners will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to develop a reciprocal relationship with the ocean, becoming ocean stewards.

Projects funded through this RFP must:

• Be led by an individual with a strong connection to and/or an existing track record of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place, or by a member of the community themselves, and be designed with the community and/or reflective of the community’s needs
• Tailor ocean literacy to their specific cultural and geographic realities

We are particularly interested in projects that are transdisciplinary, mixing natural and social sciences. For example, projects that combine storytelling, local knowledge, and ocean-focused design

This RFP is also interested in projects in National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions destinations, including the Arctic, Asia, Baja California, Costa Rica and Panama, Europe and the Mediterranean, Patagonia, the Peruvian Amazon, the Pacific Northwest, Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, the South Pacific, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more detailed information on targeted areas within these regions, please refer to the targeted areas document.

Proposals may contain one or both elements of the following:

• Project: a pilot of a new learning solution, or scaling of a learning solution with some evidence of effectiveness, to a new geography or population of learners
• Research: Measurement of the effectiveness of educational innovations

Who Should Apply

This highly competitive opportunity is open to applicants over the age of 18. Funding may be awarded in either a Level I or Level II grant. Please note that individuals who are National Geographic Explorers (i.e. individuals who previously received a grant from National Geographic Society) are only eligible for Level II funding. 

The applicant must demonstrate relevant education experience; see attached document for more guidance. 

Project Eligibility 

• Project must align to the Education primary focus ; application must select ‘Education’ as a primary discipline
• Project must align to the Ocean focus area; Application must select ‘Ocean’ as the primary focus area
• Candidate must not be a current National Geographic staff member
• Candidate must be over the age of 18 
• Project should not start before January 2027
• For Level I applications: 
  • Project budget may not exceed USD $20,000. 
  • Project must be completed within one year of receipt of funding
  • Candidate must not be a current NG Explorer. Individuals in our network who are not yet Explorers, including team members on previous grants, Young Explorers awarded in 2019 or later, or recipients of discretionary funding opportunities such as the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists and the COVID-19 Remote Learning Emergency Fund, and grant recipients from the China Air & Water Fund may apply for a Level I opportunity.  
• For Level II applications: 
  • Project budget may not exceed USD $100,000 (Level II projects average $50,000-$65,000). 
  • Project must be completed within two years of receipt of funding
  • Candidate may be a NG Explorer but does not have to be an Explorer to apply
• Application materials must be complete and clearly written enough to be able to assess candidate’s skills and experience, as well as the project idea
  • Summary section follows guidance on specific details that must be included (see attached document)
  • Risks section must not be blank; candidate must articulate risks to project participants and include a broad description of intended safeguarding measures 
  • Each budget line item must include justification
• Applicant must demonstrate relevant education experience
• Projects must pilot, scale, or measure the effectiveness of educational innovations that develop learners of all ages’ skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed to foster ocean stewardship

Candidate must demonstrate a strong connection to and/or an existing track of work in the community(ies) where the project will take place; the project should be designed in response to community needs and include ongoing collaboration or co-creation with the local community(ies) throughout the project.

Competitive proposals must describe:

• The specific barriers to ocean connection your project addresses, such such as the socioeconomic, psychological, cultural, and physical barriers 
• How your project strengthens or enhances connection to the ocean among learners
• Who the specific learners are, how many you will reach with the project, and why the learning outcomes are important to them
• The specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes learners will gain to protect the ocean or the specific research outcomes related to ocean literacy and connection
• Relevant inclusive methodologies employed in the project or research design
• See attached document for specific instructions on where and how to include these elements. 
• What success looks like for this project
  • The intended impact(s) on the learners or knowledge base
  • Any impact(s) on the environment, planet, or people

Our Approach to Education

The National Geographic Society (NGS) is where education meets exploration. A pillar of our mission since our founding, education shapes how we engage with each other and our surroundings and inspires educators and learners to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.

At NGS we fund bold, innovative, and transformative work. We believe that while science helps us understand and protect the wonder of our world, and storytelling provides the emotional connection that inspires us to care about the world, education prepares us with the knowledge, skills and tools to take action to protect the planet. 

We view education as both a discipline and a practice. We define education as the process and methods of teaching and learning where learners of any age acquire and cultivate attitudes, skills, and knowledge. 

We also hold an expansive view of educators, defining an educator as any learning professional or community member who imparts knowledge in such a way as to enable conditions for change in a learner. 

We believe that learners can be any age, from a young child to an adult learner, and we believe that lifelong learning matters. We also believe that learning can happen anywhere – in school or out of school, through formal or informal education, and in a variety of settings. 

Grant awardees will receive:

• Up to $20K for a level I grant over 1 year or up to $100K for a level II grant over 2 yrs (note: the average budget for a LII is between $50-65K)
• Grant recipients become members of the Explorer Community and eligible for future funding, learning and networking opportunities.
• All Ocean RFP grantees will become part of a cohort experience to include virtual gatherings intended to promote networking amongst grantees, relationship building, sharing of lessons learned, and impact communications

Webinars

The National Geographic Society will host two one-hour informational webinars dedicated to this Request for Proposals (RfP). We strongly encourage you to register and attend one of the webinars. There is no need to attend more than one webinar as the information presented will be the same. The link to register will be added soon, check back to register and join.

Webinar 1: Wednesday May 20, 2026 15:00-16:00 EDT (19:00-20:00 UTC)

Webinar 2: Thursday May 21, 2026 08:00-09:00 EDT (12:00-13:00 UTC)

During these webinars we will share information about the RfP and answer questions. If you are interested in participating in a webinar, please register here. 

If you have questions not answered here or in the attached document, Please email us at funding@ngs.org with “Developing Future Ocean Stewards RFP” in the subject line.

Applying

Application Guidance – read this before hitting apply!

Please read through this document before hitting the “apply now” button and starting your application. It includes important information on how to complete the online application. Failure to read this information may negatively impact the quality of your application. 

The application will open for submissions on June 1, 2026; the deadline to submit is June 24, 2026, at 11:59 PM EDT (3:59 AM UTC).