Passenger services
Ferries and boats connecting communities.
Focus — Mobility, Energy & Essential Infrastructure — Water transportation
WATER TRANSPORTATION
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve movement by river, lake, and sea for the passengers, fishers, and traders who travel by water.
Why this area
WATER TRANSPORTATION
IN CONTEXT.
Where roads end, water carries people and goods. Ideas qualify when safety, vessel maintenance, and landing infrastructure are addressed together.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Freight & landing
Moving cargo, and the jetties that make it possible.
Safety
Vessels, capacity, weather, and rescue.
Cleaner propulsion
Fuel cost and emissions on the water.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A WATER TRANSPORTATION
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where movement by river, lake, and sea fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — journey time, fare, safety incidents, or cargo moved.
- Explains what the passengers, fishers, and traders who travel by water do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of movement by river, lake, and sea in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier ferry and jetty projects did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the passengers, fishers, and traders who travel by water, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — vessels, routes, landings, or passengers per week.
- A stated measure of success — journey time, fare, safety incidents, or cargo moved.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves access, cost, and safety of travel for the passengers, fishers, and traders who travel by water.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named boat operator, landing committee, or maritime authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of movement by river, lake, and sea in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the passengers, fishers, and traders who travel by water or the boat operator, landing committee, or maritime authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about water transportation with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
WATER TRANSPORTATION IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about movement by river, lake, and sea that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.