In 1995 Operation Wallacea started running research expeditions, large scale biodiversity data is collected, data is published and conservation strategies are developed. It is not always possible for Operation Wallacea Ltd to lead and manage such change, in these cases data is shared with the Wallacea Trust and the next stage of conservation continues. The Wallacea Trust has been supported by the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, Canadian Development Agency, Garfield Weston Foundation, Murray Foundation, DANIDA, Wakatobi Government, European Union and the UK Government Darwin Initiative and Premier Oil, in addition to private donations from Wallacea Alumni and friends. Student volunteers who join expeditions for the opportunity to work on real-world research programmes alongside academic researchers. For exemple, in Croatia, students join researchers for 2 weeks, 1 week for animal surveys; the second week in Silba Island, includes a diving training course and a marine cology course, with work on seagrass survey, sponge, shelfish and other invertebrate surveys
