Small Grant Awards

Request for Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity Proposals

Due: 4:00 pm Monday, 9 March 2009

The IGERT in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity calls for student proposals for the Spring 2008 Small Grant Competition. The main purpose is to support research by graduate students with an interest in biogeochemistry and environmental biocomplexity. We hope to have a competition in the Fall of 2008 pending the availability of funds. Students are eligible to apply for only one grant a year.

Who May Apply: This program is for any graduate student with research interests in biogeochemistry and environmental biocomplexity and who participates in, or will participate in, the program in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity. Students may apply for these small grants regardless of whether they receive or will receive other types of funding from the IGERT program in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Small Grants Competition of the Biogeochemisty and Environmental Biocomplexity program will be able to support a limited number of proposals from graduate students who otherwise qualify for support but cannot meet the US citizenship or permanent residency requirement. The funds to enable this expansion of the program are from the Biogeochemistry and Biocomplexity Initiative, BBI (non-NSF). Proposals will be handled and reviewed without regard to the nationality of the applicant. However, because funds for U.S. citizens and permanent residents come from different sources than those for non-U.S. citizens or residents, please indicate your residency status on the cover sheet where indicated. Funding decision will be made on the basis of overall scientific merit, relevance to the goals of BEB, and availability of funds. Those students who are not familiar with this program should see the small grants link at the biogeo web site: www.biogeo.cornell.edu.

Use of the Funds: Funds can be used to support research expenses, including but not limited to supplies and equipment, travel costs associated with field work, travel and tuition costs for off-campus training, and travel costs for meetings (minus the amount typically available through the Graduate School). Funds are not intended to supplement or serve as student stipends, nor can they be used to pay wages or salaries for assistants. They also are not intended to support purchase of personal computers, or other routine laboratory equipment normally available in the laboratories of BEB faculty. All funds must be spent within one year of receiving the funds. As a condition of acceptance of the funds, students are expected to participate in IGERT activities, including participation in seminars, annual retreats, and are required to complete an annual online report to the National Science Foundation. A copy of the online report should be e-mailed to Biogeo@cornell.edu. Instructions for completing this report will be posted to www.biogeo.cornell.edu.

The Proposal: Interested students should submit a proposal that includes the following: (1) a concise statement of research interests; (2) a clear description of the proposed project; (3) a statement of how the funds will enable the student to make substantial progress in their program of study; and (4) an itemized budget and budget notes, which indicate how the funds will be used. A description of past participation in the program and of present and planned participation in the program in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity (BEB) must be completed as part of the cover page for the proposal. If the proposal is a revision of one you submitted in one of the last two rounds, briefly describe what changes you have made in response to reviewers' comments.

Proposed budgets should provide sufficient level of detail and justification for reviewers to determine if the requested funding is appropriate in light of the work proposed. For example, requests for funds to support isotope analysis should specify where the analysis will be conducted, the price per sample, and the number of samples to be submitted for analysis. The need for isotope analysis should be obvious from the text of the proposal. If chemical supplies are requested, the types of chemicals needed should be listed and their prices given. If funds for travel to and from field sites are requested, the distance to sites and the number of trips to the sites should be given. Any budget request whose need is not obvious from the text of the proposal must be accompanied by a justification.

The text for items 1-3 above is limited to three pages, not including literature cited. The budget (item 4) should not exceed one page. The text must be either single-spaced or 1.5 spaced and in size 12 font, Times New Roman. Students funded previously by the small grants program within the program in Biogeochemisty and Environmental Biocomplexity must include a progress report of up to one additional page describing the status and accomplishments of their previously-funded project.

Proposal Review: One of the goals of the BEB program is to provide students with education and experience in all aspects of the research process, including grant preparation and evaluation. Hence, the review committee for the Small Grants program consists largely of graduate students who are active in the program. Students from several departments will serve on the review committee. Tim Fahey, Principal Investigator for the IGERT BEB grant, Barbara Bedford, Chair of the Small Grants Committee, and Suzanne Wapner, the Program Coordinator for the BEB program work with these students. All proposals are read by two or three members of the committee who score them on the basis of several criteria; these criteria can be found on the BEB web site. When a student submits a proposal in the funding round for which they serve as a member of the review committee, that student's proposal will not be discussed by the committee and the funding decision will be made by the two faculty members of the review committee.

Before submission to this competition, students preparing proposals are strongly urged to have their draft proposals reviewed by fellow students and by their major advisors and to revise their proposals in response to their comments. The Biogeo grad students have arranged a review opportunity for grad students. This semesterÕs grad student proposal review will be Thursday March 5th, (time and place TBA). If you would like to have your proposal reviewed or are willing to review grants, please contact Joe Simonis (jls468@cornell.edu) by Friday Feb. 27th. Proposals will be due to grad peer reviewers by Monday March 2nd.

The maximum support per individual student is $4000. Collaborative proposals by students from two or more different departments, or different "labs," are encouraged and will receive special consideration in funding decisions. All collaborators must be involved, or intend to become involved, in the Biogeochemistry and Environmental Biocomplexity Program. Funding decisions will be made by the end of November 2007 and successful applicants will be notified by e-mail.

How to Apply: Proposals must be submitted electronically by e-mailing them to biogeo@cornell.edu. See attached for a sample of the criteria to be used to evaluate your proposal, and the cover sheet that must accompany your proposal. Proposals should be Word documents ONLY (not pdfs). with the filename in the format Lastname_Firstname_SmallGrant_Spring2008.doc. The standard coversheet should be included as the first page of the file. In addition to an electronic submission, one hard copy of your proposal should be campus mailed to Suzanne in 8 Fernow Hall by 4:00 pm Friday, 7 March 2008. You also may bring applications by in person. You also may bring applications by in person. Please direct any questions to Barbara L. Bedford (blb4@cornell.edu).

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For more information, please contact biogeo@cornell.edu.