Scientific Research Partners
We are proud to have partnered with government agencies, universities, businesses and nonprofit organizations, including:
Adventure Scientists designs and manages high‑quality field data collection projects that help research partners advance scientific and environmental goals. Using our global network of trained volunteer scientists, we deliver reliable data from remote, hard‑to‑reach locations at any scale, freeing your team to focus on analysis and impact.
“In every project and in nearly every way, Adventure Scientists has exceeded my expectations. Their ability to train and manage volunteers is impressive. I’m not sure I’ve seen an organization that can so capably coordinate small armies across such diverse environments and across such huge geographic spans.”
Why Organizations Choose Adventure Scientists for Field Research Partnerships
We work hand-in-hand with scientific partners to determine data needs and design protocols. Our QA process ensures data quality that will hold up to the toughest scrutiny.
Volunteers are recruited based on necessary outdoor skills and are then trained and assessed on data collection protocols. This ensures the data we collect is consistent and reliable.
When possible, we open access to our raw datasets to allow other researchers to learn from them what they can, and to put their own work into broader context.
Tracing Antibiotic Resistance
Harvard Medical School
It was once thought that antibiotic resistance developed only within the constructed environment of hospitals, but our collaboration with the Infectious Disease Institute at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute has proved that antibiotic resistance is endemic in bacteria even in remote environments that have never been exposed to human antibiotics.
Our study has shown that leading causes of multidrug-resistant hospital infection, the enterococci, acquired the core traits needed to survive hospital disinfection regimes ~450 million years ago.
“We have narrowed the search for genes responsible for a key bacterium becoming antibiotic resistant down from thousands to less than 90 genes. We would not have gotten here nearly as quickly without Adventure Scientists.”
— Dr. Mike Gilmore, Harvard Medical School
Timber Tracking
US Forest Service
Volunteer-collected tree samples are building genetic and chemical reference maps that allow suspicious timber to be tested against verified harvest locations. These databases support prosecutions and disrupt the $100-billion illegal timber trade.
Tropical deforestation generates about 10% of global carbon emissions. More than half of timber from major tropical forests and up to 30% of finished wood products is illegally sourced. This trade rivals the international heroin market, drives biodiversity loss, and harms forest-dependent communities. Governments, companies, and consumers need reliable tools to trace wood to its origin, and advanced DNA technologies depend on extensive reference libraries.
By providing previously unavailable samples, our project strengthens DNA-based tracing systems, limits the global movement of illegal lumber, and supports the 1.6 billion people who rely on intact forests.
Extreme-Environment Fungi Transforming Agriculture
Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies
Samples of the highest-known plant life on Earth, collected by Adventure Scientists volunteers from Mount Everest in 2011, enabled Dr. Rusty Rodriguez to isolate symbiotic fungi and bacteria that allow moss to survive at 22,000 feet.
Dr. Rodriguez later founded Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies to apply these symbiotic relationships to agriculture, improving crop yields and land arability without synthetic fertilizers. The technology is currently used on 600,000 acres in India, increasing yields by more than 50%, and is projected to expand to 2.5 million acres next year.
Beyond boosting global food production, this work supports climate-resilient native plants, reduces invasive species threats, and accelerates habitat restoration.
Dr. Rodriguez has since partnered with Adventure Scientists to collect additional plant specimens from extreme environments worldwide—such as regions with severe heat, salinity, frost, and drought—to identify the most effective fungi for each condition.
“We have limited funding for science – that’s just the way it is, yet, there are people traveling all over the world to very unique, extreme places who can collect samples for us to will enable new approaches to feeding the world in the face of a changing climate. Adventure Scientists brings a new functionality to science and business, and the potential of solving today’s problems is something we need a lot more of. It’s just really great.”
Turning Data Into Impact
What could you accomplish with high-quality scientific data collected anywhere in the world, at any scale?
Watch this video to see how wildlife biologist Betsy Howell, microbiologist Dr. Rusty Rodriguez, and disease ecologist Dr. Michael Gilmore partnered with Adventure Scientists to advance wildlife conservation, improve climate-resilient agriculture, and identify the genes behind antibiotic resistance.