Funding

Funding to support student research that enhances the protection of tropical rainforests through better understanding and sustainable practices

Research funding opportunities for 2026 are now closed

The Skyrail Rainforest Foundation offers funding to support student research that enhances the protection of tropical rainforests through better understanding and sustainable practices.

Objective for 2026: Research aimed to help inform the protection and management of the Wet Tropics Rainforest in a changing world.

PhD and Postdoctoral Grants

Funding Amount: Up to $21,000 per student

Term: 3 years (Payment $7,000 per annum)

Masters and Honours Grants

Funding Amount: Up to $7,000 per student

Term: One-off term and payment

Tree kangaroo sitting high in the rainforest canopy

A Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) rests high in a tree in Queensland rainforest.

Student Funding

Students that have received funding from the foundation are required to submit regular progress reports throughout their research.

This allows the committee the opportunity to keep up to date with the progression of all student projects.

Progress Report

For students currently completing research projects and that have received funding from the foundation, you are able to download the progress report form as well as the final report form for submission below.

Final Report

The Skyrail Rainforest Foundation Cyclone Larry Project commenced in October 2006 and consisted of 10 separate projects. Research was primarily undertaken by the Tropical Landscapes Joint Venture, which is an alliance between James Cook University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. The project outcomes benefited rainforest communities worldwide, when they were published in the international ecology journal Austral Ecology in May of 2008.

Projects Funded in 2026

Pavithra Sundar

Shifting sounds in the upland bird communities of Australia’s Wet Tropics

Marco Lassandro

Translocations as a Tool for Conservation of Endangered Rainforest Frogs

Johan Larson

Improving detection and monitoring of arboreal mammals in tropical rainforests: a multi-scale study using Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo

Linda Reinhold

Diversity and Evolution of Australian Bioluminescent Fungi

Emmeline Norris

Utilising drone-based thermal remote sensing technology to accurately estimate spectacled flying-fox (Pteropus conspicillatus) abundance and model population trajectories.

Skyrail Rainforest Foundation, Terrain NRM’s Natural Capital Fund, the Wet Tropics Management Authority and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have joined forces to create the Wet Tropics Cooperative Research Partnership.

Wet Tropics Cooperative Research Partnership

$40,000 Indigenous Research Grant Awarded.

The first indigenous research grant has been awarded through a new Wet Tropics partnership, formed to improve land and water management in the Far North.

The partnership has awarded a $40,000 grant to CQ University for researchers to work with traditional owners and others in the Atherton Tablelands region.

CQ University Professor of Tourism Bruce Prideaux said the team would establish protocols for a traditional knowledge and science supply database.

“We will be working closely with traditional owners from across nine groups and with others in the Tablelands community from local government to other land managers, industry and groups like historical societies,’’ he said.
“In this project we’ll be doing the groundwork, learning more about Country and cultural data needs and designing a framework including intellectual property agreements and cultural protocol templates."
“The aim is to combine traditional knowledge and science with western knowledge and science for improved land and sea water management outcomes.”

March 11, 2014