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Biodiversity Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grants

Announced March 13, 2020

The Biodiversity Institute seeks proposals that enhance
the biodiversity research efforts of graduate students at UW

Successful conservation of biological diversity requires both basic and applied research to better inform current and future policy decisions. Because graduate students are a major engine of biodiversity research at UW, the Biodiversity Institute (BI) is providing grants to enhance or expand ongoing graduate student research in any field related to biodiversity.

 

The Biodiversity Graduate Student Research Enhancement Grant Program supports:

  • Student-designed and driven research that 1) improves our understanding of how biodiversity is generated, maintained, or restored and how it impacts ecosystem services and 2) provides effective means of communicating the value of biodiversity research to diverse audiences including assessment of the communication’s effectiveness
  • Summer, half-academic year, or full-academic year graduate stipends and tuition
  • Travel and supplies that support the project

 

Successful proposals will:

  • Enhance and expand ongoing biodiversity research by graduate students
  • Be clearly articulated and compelling by appropriately framing biodiversity research questions or hypotheses and a brief, accessible description of methods
  • Provide a mechanism to communicate the findings in a way that likely either increases the current knowledge of biodiversity research of existing BI audiences or grows the BI audience, and a mechanism to evaluate effectiveness of the communication. Applicants are encouraged to communicate with BI Broader Impacts Officer, Dr. Brian Barber (bbarber4@uwyo.edu), on these approaches, including determining specific interactions with BI staff, if needed.

 

Eligibility:

  • Grants are available to any M.S. or Ph.D. student in good standing at the University of Wyoming at the time the award is made.
  • Graduate students must continue to be enrolled, with good standing, at the University of Wyoming throughout the duration of their proposal timeline (which should not extend beyond June 30, 2021).
  • Research must have ongoing support in the form of existing resources to the student or advisor, access to appropriate equipment, and already approved field or other permits.

 

Award Details:

  • Grants may include any of the following singly or in combination: summer, fall, or spring stipends at the current rate of the home department, tuition, supplies and travel to conduct research up to $5,000, travel to support conference participation (i.e., not just attendance) up to $1,500, publication costs up to $2,000.
  • Total funding may not exceed $30,000; proposals with lower budgets are more likely to be funded. No funding may go to graduate advisors.
  • Funding is available from May 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

 

 

Proposal Requirements:

The proposal must follow the format provided below (also available here in PDF Format).

  • Submit as a single pdf file to biodiversity@uwyo.edu.
  • Proposals are limited to four pages of text including the budget justification and must use the format described below.
  • A letter of recommendation from the student’s graduate advisor indicating that a) the student is in good standing, and b) the faculty member is willing and able to provide guidance as well as any resources required to fulfill the project. Proposals will not be evaluated on the total value of the available resources but rather how the requested support from the proposal enhances the graduate student research. The letter must come directly from the sponsor and should be submitted to biodiversity@uwyo.edu. This letter does not count toward the proposal page limit.

 

Proposal format:

  • Proposal title
  • Graduate student name, affiliation, email address, and phone number
  • Email address of Graduate Advisor
  • Requested amount
  • Objective of the project
  • Background and rationale
  • Question or Hypotheses to be answered or falsified
  • Methods, timeline and deliverables
  • Plan for Communicating Biodiversity Research: Briefly indicate a plan for how the research outcomes will be communicated to either improve the understanding of the current BI audience or increase the BI audience. The plan should include some compelling ideas on how to provide evidence that the communication was effective. Applicants are strongly urged to discuss these plans with the Broader Impacts Officer before April 6th. The Officer may work directly with the applicant on the plan or recommend other relevant individuals from the BI and other groups.
  • Itemized budget: including any leveraged support.
  • Images that convey the project are encouraged and should be included in the four pages of the proposal. External links are allowed for portfolios of work.

 

Proposal review:

Proposals will be reviewed by a committee composed of Biodiversity Institute personnel and UW faculty active in biodiversity research whose students have not submitted a proposal. Committee members will rank proposals using a rubric constructed from the bulleted lists of items listed above.

 

Deadline for submission:

Applications must be received by 5:00 pm MST April 10th, 2020. Receipt of proposals will be acknowledged by email. Decisions will be made and communicated by approximately May 1st, 2020 with funds available as soon as the budget of the funded proposals are approved by the BI.

 

Questions are encouraged and may be addressed to the Biodiversity Institute, biodiversity@uwyo.edu.