Tune in to BBC Radio 4 at 11am today to hear A cello in the desert, documenting Journey of a Lifetime Award recipient Nina Plapp’s musical journey through the northern Indian province of Rajasthan.
The Society offers three grants for challenging, inspiring journeys with a geographical purpose. This year’s application deadlines are fast approaching.
The Journey of a Lifetime Award is run in partnership with BBC Radio 4. It offers a £5,000 grant for an original and memorable journey anywhere in the world, plus training in field recording from the BBC and the chance to share your experiences through a radio documentary. The recipient of the 2016 award is professional cellist Nina Plapp, who travelled to the northern Indian province of Rajasthan to meet the nomads of the Thar Desert and learn about their rich musical culture.
The deadline for the 2017 Journey of a Lifetime Award is 2 November 2016.
The Land Rover Bursary is run by the Society on behalf of Jaguar Land Rover. Offering up to £30,000 and the loan of a vehicle – which in 2017 will be the new Land Rover Discovery – the bursary is aimed at those who want to take a journey beyond their limits and for which a Land Rover is an integral part. This award is all about challenging yourself and inspiring others. This year’s recipients, Tom Allen and Alessandro Mambelli, have done exactly that on their Transcaucasian Expedition to create the first long-distance hiking trail across the mountains of Georgia and Armenia. Tom and Alessandro spent six months using GIS technology to survey off-road routes and develop the resources to hike a 1,500km backcountry trail.
Applications for the 2017 bursary must be submitted by 30 November 2016.
The Neville Shulman Challenge Award offers between £5,000 and £8,000 for a project that furthers the understanding and exploration of the planet: its cultures, people and environments. In previous years the award has supported camera trapping surveys deep in the Peruvian Andes, a photography project investigating the progress of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and a documentary of life in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Zanskar. This year’s recipient is Sam Jones who will be leading an expedition to Mozambique to undertake the first biological exploration of the Njesi Plateau.