Wild about wild cats?
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The Small Cat Action Fund (SCAF) is a grants program established by Panthera and is intended to support in situ conservation and research activities on the many small cat species.
The SCAF supports work on the “small cats,” namely all species of the family Felidae excluding the genera Panthera, Acinonyx and the puma (Puma concolor). However, for 2024, species classified as Threatened (including Critically Endangered, Endangered) and Near Threatened by the IUCN will be prioritized. Priority species include:
The amount of funding awarded varies, up to a maximum of $15,000 per year. Preference will be given to requests specifically for field conservation and research activities, including equipment, transportation, and local salaries. Panthera will consider salaries, per diems, and stipends for local field personnel only; we will not fund salaries for core administrative and management personnel. Panthera will not consider large requests for expensive first world university tuition, except in exceptional cases where the applicants are nationals from developing countries and provide convincing rationales that the institutions will provide critical graduate training that is not available in their home country. Panthera does not support conferences, travel to scientific meetings, legal actions, overhead costs, or academic exchanges.
Letters of Inquiry and applications are reviewed by Panthera Regional and Species Experts. Projects are evaluated in terms of the:
The application process opens with a call for Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) between 15 February and 15 March. The application portal is only open between these dates. The LOI asks for the title and location of the proposed project, the target species, the project budget and the amount requested from Panthera, and an abstract of the project. Qualified applicants who submit LOIs for projects that appear to be a good fit for the program will be asked to submit a full application and supporting documents. Both LOIs and applications must be submitted through Panthera’s grant management system, Foundant. Applicants are only permitted to apply to one Panthera grant program per intake round. If you are seeking renewal for a previous grant, please contact us directly at grants@panthera.org.
By joining our email list, you will receive the latest conservation updates, exciting stories from the field, our monthly newsletter, and more.
Join Our Email ListPanthera cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy.