GRANTS

Sea Forward Ocean Health (SFOH) Fund provides small grants to propel innovative programs and projects that support the ocean’s biodiversity and ecosystem through science, education, and action. SFOH favors well-defined, discrete projects so the impact of our grants can be measured and meaningfully assessed.

We also appreciate the opportunity to match project grants from other funders. In addition to supporting graduate student internships from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara, our focus for 2023-2024 has been in the Coral Triangle Region of Indonesia. This area is one of our planet’s biodiversity hotspots for marine life including an awe-inspiring array of colorful fish and coral. More than 120 million people also rely on this area for their livelihoods, but the region is threatened by overfishing, climate change and pollution. Our recent grants to recipients in the coral triangle focused on education, sustainability, reef surveys and waste management. Our planned 2025-2026 focus area for grants will be Latin America.

A grants committee of ocean science and education professionals selects recipients of up to two projects or programs per year. Click the links below to learn more about our grant recipients.

Note: At this time we are not accepting unsolicited proposals.

Those invited to apply please do so here:

Grants Applications

The Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara develops interdisciplinary solutions to environmental problems, trains environmental leaders, and works toward a sustainable future. Sea Forward provides internships to Bren School graduate students to support work in ocean focused initiatives.

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The Coral Triangle Center supports the Rhun Island women's group in developing a sustainable community-based waste management mechanism, to increase the knowledge, skills, and capacity of the group members in waste management practices, to improve waste management equipment and facilities in Rhun Island, and to increase the involvement of diverse groups in improving waste management, including women's group members as well as school children, village government, and local community members.

The Biosphere Foundation’s project, Biosphere Regeneration, Education, and Training for Indigenous Peoples in the Coral Triangle, addresses ocean health challenges in Northeast Sulawesi by empowering remote island peoples with knowledge to steward coral reefs and implement food gardens in coastal villages. From January to August 2024, the Biosphere Foundation’s flagship sailing yacht ‘Mir’ sailed over four thousand nautical miles, training indigenous leaders, both onboard and at selected island communities, in sustainability and ecological regenerative practices. The program also incorporated a 'Semester at Sea' training program for Indonesian interns to learn about seamanship, navigation, and coral stewardship and bring these skills back to their local communities.

The Misool Foundation, dedicated to protecting coral reefs in Misool Marine Reserve, Raja Ampat, Indonesia, was the recipient of our first matching grant. Misool Resort and Misool Foundation are protecting the world's richest coral reefs and this grant will help to support reef health and fish biomass studies.

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