ABS Grants

The Australasian Bat Society proudly supports projects by members  that promote the conservation and knowledge of bats in Australasia through the ABS Grants programme.

​Grant details will be announced to ABS members in autumn and spring each year.
Not a member? 

Two types of grants

1) Regular ABS grants 
Three grants of $1,500 awarded once a year.
(Applications are usually sought between 1 March - 1 April)
2) Paddy Pallin Foundation-sponsored ABS grants 
Two grants of $3,000 awarded once a year, kindly sponsored by the Paddy-Pallin Foundation.
(Applications are usually sought between 1 September - 1 October)

Eligibility

Who: 
Any member of the Australasian Bat Society Inc. can apply for an ABS grant.
 
Activities funded: 
The ABS Grants programme is open to applications for any proposal that:
 
• Improves or promotes the conservation of bats and their habitat in Australasia,
• Raises positive public awareness of bats in Australasia,
• Undertakes scientific research that contributes to bat conservation in Australasia,
• Supports the role that wildlife carer and rehabilitation organisations play in bat conservation in Australasia.

Projects may include (but need not be limited to):
• Scientific research, student projects, on ground bat conservation work, education programs or materials, equipment or materials purchased to support bat conservation programs or projects.
 
The ABS is interested in supporting a very broad range of projects. However, funding is unlikely to be available for the following purposes:
 
• conference travel, attendance at meetings, or other short-term activities mainly involving travel, where these are
  the principal elements of the grant proposal,
• activities which are properly the responsibility of other funding bodies or other government agencies,
• recurrent funding of existing projects,
• payment of salaries, wages etc.
 
Where:
ABS Grants are only available for projects undertaken in the Australasian region. That is the islands east of ‘Wallace’s Line’ including; Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and the islands of the south-west Pacific.

Past Projects

 2011 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Julie Broken-Brow: The abundance, species diversity and habitat usage of microbats in coastal mangroves of South-East Queensland.
  • Cory Toth: The breeding ecology of the Lesser Short-tailed Bat (Mystacina tuberculata).
  • Jenny Maclean: Tolga Bat Hospital: Assistance with Spectacled Flying Fox rescue and care during 2011-12 tick season.
 
2012 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Stephen Griffiths: Efficacy of artificial bat-boxes as a tool in the conservation  of tree-roosting insectivorous bats.
  • Ian Gill, Keiran Stone, Gavin Collis, Sarah Evans, Tim Shaw: John Paul High School - Mauria Forest bat survey, New Zealand.
 
2013 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  •  Lisa Cawthen: King Island Bat Survey.
 
2014 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Jane Hall: Developing non-invasive methods for the detection of toxic heavy metals (e.g. Cadmium) in the Christmas Island Flying-fox (Pteropus melanotus natalis), using the Grey-headed flying-fox (P. poliocephalus) as an analogue.
  • Cathy Hartley: Improving mortality rates in Juvenile Grey-headed Flying-foxes  during Heat Stress Events.
 
2015 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Tyrone Lavery and Michael Pennay: Bat calls of the Solomon Islands: a reference call library and identification key to the bats of the Solomon Archipelago.
  • Toni Mitchell: Enhancing caring standards for bats and raising awareness for deadly hazards in our environment.
  • Julie Broken-Brow: The roosting preferences of Saccolaimus mixtus and Critically Endangered Saccolaimus saccolaimus nudicluniatus in Cape York.
 
2016 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Kayla Asplet: Investigating the sensitivity of Myotis macropus (Large-footed Myotis) to heavy-metal pollution in urban waterways, Sydney, New South Wales.
  • Erin Westerhuis: The importance of riparian woodland for insectivorous bats and their prey in central Australia.
 
2017 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Bradley Clarke-Wood:  Insectivorous bats and spatial subsidies across a land-use gradient in north-eastern Victoria’ as a part of ‘Longitudinal trends in land-use, spatial subsidies and food-webs of north-eastern Victorian perennial streams.
  • Anita Freudmann: Foraging ecology and behaviour of Eastern Tube-nosed Bats (Nyctimene robinsoni).
  • Danielle Eastick: Sex and the city: Investigating the reproductive ecology of a successful urban species, the Gould’s wattled bat (Chalinolobus gouldii), in greater Melbourne.

2018 Projects (Paddy Pallin Foundation ABS grantees)
  • Laura Pulscher: Are Nutritional Diseases Contributing to the decline of the Endangered Christmas Island Flying-Fox?
  • Amanda Lo Cascio: What factors affect microbat connectivity in fire-prone fragmented landscapes?

2019 Projects (Paddy Pallin Foundation ABS grantees)
  • Kerryn Parry Jones: Black and Grey-headed flying-foxes similarities in biology diet behaviour.
  • Eliane McCarthy: Remotely sensing flying-foxes in their roosts.

2019 Projects (ABS Conservation Grantees)
  • Vanessa Gorecki: The roosting ecology and roost selection of Large-footed Myotis (Myotis macropus) in culverts in Brisbane.
  • Elizabeth Parker: The big bat and wildlife festival.
  • Sarah Judge: Cultural engagement with bat conservation at Yellomundee Aboriginal Place Yarramundi NSW.

 ​