The Meteoritical Society Endowment Fund supports a variety of activities through grants that are made twice a year. We are very pleased to announce that three Community Grants were recently selected for funding during the first selection opportunity in 2026. Thank you to the Endowment Committee for their efforts leading this opportunity. The summaries below, provided by the lead of each project, give more information about the worthwhile activities being supported through these new Community Grants.
- Marian Sapah (University of Ghana) "The Traveling Telescope Ghana: Extending Planetary and Space Science"
- Building the success of the 2023 METSOC endowment fund sponsored project titled “Planetary and Space Science Outreach for Basic Schools in Ghana” (https://meteoritical.org/news/report-planetary-and-space-science-outreach-basic-schools-ghana), which was focused on selected schools in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, "The Traveling Telescope" project seeks to expand planetary and space science outreach to Basic and Senior High Schools in other Regions in Ghana, outside of the Greater-Accra region. This project will deliver hands-on workshops, establish Astronomy Clubs, and directly engage students and teachers in planetary and space science while helping to bridge the urban-rural science education gap.
- Alexandre Corgne (Austral University of Chile) "Creation of a permanent meteorite exhibition linked to the Pelom Kura"
- This project aims to create a permanent meteorite exhibition to bring to light the work carried out by the Pelom Kura repository, the only Chilean meteorite repository formally recognized by the Meteoritical Society. The exhibition will not only focus on the scientific importance of meteorites for understanding the origin of the solar system, planetary formation and the evolution of life on Earth, but it will also focus on Chile’s tremendous wealth as a meteorite provider to raise public awareness at the local and regional scales, especially towards the younger generations.
- Sujoy Ghosh (Indian Institute of Technology) "MetMeSS-6 – National Symposium on Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites"
- MetMeSS-6 will be organized at IIT Kharagpur to strengthen meteoritics and planetary science education, research networking, and outreach in India and South Asia. The first four editions of MetMeSS symposium were successfully hosted by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, and the 5th edition is being organized at Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, reflecting the growing national footprint and continuity of this initiative. The symposium will include keynote lectures, contributed oral and poster sessions, hands-on laboratory demonstrations, and focused outreach activities. Community Grant support will be primarily used to provide student travel fellowships and to support outreach and educational activities.
The Meteoritical Society is delighted to be able to support these worthwhile projects that further the society’s goals to promote research and education in planetary science. The next application deadline for Endowment Fund requests is June 15, 2026. Guidelines for submitting your requests can be found on the Endowment page of the website.