Research Funding

Research in the BIOT involves high costs, partly due to the remote location and partly due to the fact that all travel (other than by private yacht or vessel) must be in USAF Military Airlift Command aircraft through Paya Lebar airbase (Paya Lebar Airbase) in Singapore or Bahrain to Diego Garcia. The US charge for this. Also, whilst on Diego Garcia, the US charge for food, accommodation and all other logistical support that they are asked to provide. These costs are likely to be in the range £5,000 to £7,000 per person.

FCO Bursaries

In 2012 the FCO agreed to provide a number of bursaries (~£3,000 each) to help meet the high costs of the travel and living costs on Diego Garcia and in the Chagos. It appears that this scheme was discontinued probably in 2016 since the FCDO can no longer find any record of it nor do they know if any bursaries were awarded.

Darwin Initiative

The Darwin Initiative makes funds available for research in the Overseas Territories (of which the British Indian Ocean is one) through both the main fund and through the Darwin Plus: Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund.

Darwin Plus (For details see Darwin Plus.)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department for International Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have developed a new ‘Darwin Plus: Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund'.

The Fund brings together two existing Government funding mechanisms – the DFID/FCO-funded Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP) and OT-related elements of the Defra/DFID-funded Darwin Initiative (including the Challenge Fund). The Fund aims to provide a simpler and more co-ordinated mechanism to support UK Overseas Territories’ natural environment issues by acting as a ‘one-stop-shop’ source of funding.

The remit of the new Fund is broad, incorporating both biodiversity-related issues funded under the Darwin Initiative, as well as the broader range of environment and climate-related issues funded under OTEP. The new Fund will continue to be accessible to OT Governments, NGOs, research institutions, the private sector and other stakeholders.

Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

See the JNCC website (Sourcing Funds for Nature Conservation Projects in the Overseas Territories) for details of funding sources.

Bertarelli Foundation

For a number of years, the Bertarelli Foundation has provided substantial funding for research in the Chagos through its Programme in Marine Science which is administered by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)