Waitt Institute for Discovery | Ted Waitt

Navigation

Featured Expedition

At Sea Blog

Dessner Reporting from the Atlantic Ocean Seamounts

In The News

NGS/Waitt Grants

The National Geographic Society/Waitt Grants Program helps qualified and experienced individuals launch the most difficult stage of a project for which to secure funding—the search. Grants are made for exploratory fieldwork that holds promise for new breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences. NGS/Waitt Grants applications are processed throughout the year and grants are awarded expeditiously to help researchers take advantage of immediate opportunities. The NGS/Waitt grants are an initiative of the National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute.

Funded through a five-year grant from the Waitt Foundation, the NGS/Waitt Grants Program is administered by National Geographic Mission Programs and makes approximately one hundred grants annually of $5,000 to $15,000. Proposals are considered as they are received and awards are made within weeks of application.

The Waitt Grants Program upholds rigorous standards of review and scientific merit, but does not shy away from risky or unproven ideas. In that spirit, NGS/Waitt Grants support projects at the cutting edge of technology and research. The Program encourages applicants to think big—but travel light—as they look toward new frontiers around the globe. Grants are made to explorers and scientists in research fields such as biology, anthropology, and the geosciences who are working across disciplines and reacting quickly to field opportunities.

The NGS/Waitt Grants Program targets nascent initiatives and untested concepts that may have trouble finding funding through traditional sources. Where time is short and the stakes are high, NGS/Waitt Grants can ensure that opportunities for discovery are undertaken. The NGS/Waitt Grants Program is a collaboration of the National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute, and is made possible by a grant from the Waitt Foundation.

Funding Partner

Protecting our oceans, restoring the seas to full productivity and inspiring us to make informed choices.

Stay Connected

Become a fan of the Waitt Institute to be the first to get the latest news and share it with your friends!

Institute Leadership

Ted Waitt, Founder

Ted Waitt, Founder and President

Ted Waitt, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Gateway, Inc., helped revolutionize how people use technology to live, work and play through pioneering the direct marketing of personal computers. Labeled a maverick by national business publications, he has since gone on to form multiple enterprises: Avalon Capital Group, Inc., a wholly-owned, billion-dollar private investment company with diverse interests; the Waitt Foundation; and, the Waitt Institutes.

Through the Waitt Foundation, Ted has become one of America’s 50 most generous philanthropists, according to Business Week. Established in 1993, the Foundation initially focused on community development in “at-risk” communities. After investing millions of dollars in various programs in multiple communities, Ted concluded that the Foundation’s work in domestic violence had the most measurable impact on those at risk today. The creation of the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention and the Waitt Institute in 2005 has allowed the Foundation to broaden its program interests. Ted serves as the president of the Waitt Institute and provides leadership for the Institute on a daily basis. Today, in addition to funding the two institutes, the Foundation funds a variety of environmental and scientific programs with an emerging focus on ocean exploration, conservation and rejuvenation.

Ted has served as the Chairman of the Founding Fathers campaign of the Family Violence Prevention Fund. He also serves on the Board of Trustees and the Council of Advisors of the National Geographic Society and as vice chairman of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif.

Born January 18, 1963 in Sioux City, Iowa, Ted is the son of a fourth generation cattleman. He attended the Universities of Colorado and Iowa from 1981 to 1984. After a nine-month stint working in the PC industry in Des Moines Iowa, he and Mike Hammond co-founded Gateway in 1985 on the Waitt family farm. With a $10,000 loan secured by Ted’s grandmother’s CD, they grew Gateway from “2 guys in a barn” to become a Fortune 500 company.

Over the years, Ted has earned a number of prestigious honors, among them: the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from the U.S. Small Business Association, two Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, Marketing Computers Marketer of the Year, and a Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA) award from the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by Congress to serve on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, and he received an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of South Dakota.

Ted travels the world extensively, and most recently, he developed, produced and financed the film Amelia, starring Hilary Swank released in theaters in 2009.