Frank van der Most
- @Frank_van_der_Most
- | He, him
RubberBootsData
It sounds crazy, right? I mean, who would even give that amount away for one grant?
But just imagine what you could do with that! An opportunity to think big about your nature conservation work.
I did not make it up. The MacArthur Foundation grants $100M for "a single proposal that promises real and measurable progress in solving a critical problem of our time".
The third call was in May 2024, the first in 2016 and the second in 2019. Discounting for COVID years, would make the next call in 2027. No-one promises that there will be one again, but considering the eligibility criteria it would not hurt to start preparing now.
For now, I am just curious, what would you do with a grant like that? Which critical problem of our time would you solve?
Which partners would you need? How would you set it up? What would your pitch be?
19 September 2024 5:40pm
For that amount of money, we could complete domestication and go-to-market initiatives for a dozen new dryland drought adapted native crops that provide habitat. In doing so, we would meaningfully improve food security for humanity as the climate change, save trillions of gallons of water, rescue multiple species of native pollinators from extinction, and pave the way for restoration of northern California's rivers and salmon populations. We would transform the food system for America's biggest agricultural state, and provide a model and precedent for food systems everywhere.
20 September 2024 2:14pm
"real and measurable progress" - so no blue-sky, no envelope-pushing, no dispruption ?
Jed Wheeler