British Ecological Society|| Ecologists in Africa Grant: (Deadline 18 March 2022)

If you are one of the Ecologists residing in any part of Africa, apply for the grant today! This grant provides support of up to £8,000 for Ecologists in Africa to carry out innovative ecological research.

This grant provides support for ecologists in Africa to carry out innovative ecological research. The grant aims to support you to develop your skills, experience and knowledge base as well as make connections with ecologists internationally.

Applicants are only able to submit one grant application per round, across all grant schemes.

When applications open, register/login to the online grants system, complete your contact details, and navigate to ‘Your Applications’.

As part of the application process, two referees should submit statements of support. If you are applying for travel funds, one of these must be from your host institution.

These statements should include:

why the project is important

what support will be given to you

Also, a statement that any equipment bought for the project will be made available for anyone in the host institution to conduct ecological research.

The host will automatically contact the referees using the email addresses provided in the application. The referee statements sent independently via email or by letter is ineligible.

Eligibility and Conditions

• be a scientist and a citizen of a country in Africa or its associated islands, that is a low-income economy or ‘lower-middle-income economy according to the World Bank categorization
• have at least an MSc or equivalent degree
• be working for a university or research institution in Africa that provides basic research facilities
• carry out the research in a country in Africa or its associated islands

** This currently excludes – Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Namibia and South Africa.

Terms and Conditions

The proposed work shall be complete within 18 months.

Applicants should also submit a report within three months of the end date of your award. You can submit the reports via the online grants system.

You can use the grant to pay for basic tools needed to conduct the research project, travel and in some cases part of the applicant’s salary. However, you cannot use it for tuition fees.

Also, you cannot use this grant to support research degrees. However, researchers who are already a part of a research institute or university for at least six months by the application deadline for the grant can apply for funding for research that goes towards a degree. For this, applicants need to indicate that they have already gone some way to start their research. They should also make it clear that the money will not go towards course fees or personal salary.

Some funding can cover your expenses during research where you can show that you will not be able to afford the time off from other paid employment. In these cases, you must state if the research work will be possible without our funding to cover this lost income.

All costs must be clearly justified within the budget section.

Moreover, please ensure to calculate all the costs in GBP (British Sterling).

Also, all grant contributions from the host must be acknowledged in any publications or publicity that may arise from this study. Please notify hosts of any publications supported by this funding.

They will not award more than one grant to any one applicant. Failure to submit a satisfactory report at the end of a grant will mean you are ineligible to apply for further grants.

Value

The maximum value of a grant is £8,000 for research. You can request an additional sum of up to £2,000 to fund travel to help you develop connections with other ecologists outside your usual peer group.  YOu must request this at the application stage.

Travel funds are available to spend time working with ecologists in the Global North where facilities and experience will help you on return to your own institution.

Successful applicants also receive two years of free BES membership and free online access to our journals.

Assessment Criteria

There will be a judgement of all applications by a panel of reviewers on the basis of your personal qualifications, the scientific excellence, novelty and feasibility of the proposal, as well as the academic and non-academic impact of the planned research.

You should demonstrate that you have made connections with ecologists in the Global North who can provide advice during the proposed project. If international travel is part of the application, you should demonstrate close links with those you propose to visit.

Scoring Criteria

View the scoring criteria to find out how your application will be assessed.

Re-submission Policy

The grant does not accept re-submissions of the same project. Applications are disqualified if they are re-submissions of a proposal rejected in a previous round. They will also be disqualified if they represent only a minor revision of such proposals. As a guide, to be significantly different, at least 80% of objectives and activities should be different to the original proposal.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND APPLY