What happens when a geologist, a biochemist, an evolutionary biologist and an ichthyologist get together and decide to write a research proposal? This may sound like the start of a bad joke, but in this instance a novel combination of researchers from Stellenbosch University and their international partners have pooled their expertise and sourced R9.7 million (640 000 Euro) from the Volkswagen Foundation in Germany for a unique three-year project. The Volkswagen Foundation established the 'Off the Beaten Track' funding initiative 'for projects that pursue innovative, extraordinary and cross-disciplinary lines of research that do not fall under any other current funding initiative'. In order to be eligible for funding, projects in this category have to fulfill stringent requirements of scientific excellence.