$100,000 donation to help Virginia Museum of Natural History start offering grants

Grants will be used to fund research projects across the state

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville hopes to soon start offering grants for research projects.

A local family has just made a $100,000 donation to the museum to help start an endowment fund.

Graduate students at colleges and universities in Virginia and any scientists at Virginia museums can apply for the money.

It will be used for projects that are hard to get funding for.

“It’s to support basic research into aspects of Virginia natural history. Geology, but also ecology; things like species distribution. Things that are smaller grants,” VMNH earth sciences curator James Beard said.

The museum plans to form a board to evaluate project applications and award the first grant in 2019.