GBIF Graduate Researchers Award 2023

The call for nominations for the 2023 GBIF Graduate Researchers Award is now open.

On behalf of the network of national Participants, the GBIF Secretariat is pleased to invite nominations for the 2023 Graduate Researchers Award. This annual programme aims to foster and recognise innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students whose masters and doctoral studies rely on GBIF-mediated data.

The 2023 programme will provide a pair of €5,000 prizes recognising the work of two early-career researchers— preferably, one masters and one PhD candidate — who formally receive nominations from the heads of delegation or node managers of GBIF Participant countries.

A jury organised by GBIF Science Committee will select two award recipients from the pool of nominees whose names are received by the GBIF Secretariat by 19 June* 2023. The GBIF Secretariat will announce winners in early autumn 2023 and present the winners at the 30th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB30) planned for Canberra, Australia, in October 2023.

* N.B. The UK deadline for submissions is 29 May. UK submissions should follow the guidelines below.

Eligibility

Candidates must provide a support letter verifying their affiliation with a university graduate programme to be eligible for the award. In addition, candidates must be either:

a) citizens of a country participating in GBIF, or

b) students at an institution located in a GBIF participant country

Nominations can come from the GBIF delegation or node of either the candidate’s country of citizenship or the country of the candidate’s host institution.

General submission process and deadlines

Students seeking nomination must apply to the Head of Delegation or node manager of a GBIF Voting or Associate Participant country (see the complete list). National participants are responsible for establishing their own deadlines and processes for receiving and processing student applications. As a result, graduate students who seek nomination should consult the websites of their national GBIF Participants or contact the Head of Delegation or node manager directly.

Student proposals are first reviewed and prioritised at the national level. GBIF national nodes are encouraged to work closely with the academic communities and higher education institutions in their countries and to reach out to relevant university programmes and research groups.

National Heads of Delegation and/or node managers may submit a maximum of two nominees per country to the GBIF Secretariat to gradresearchersaward@GBIF.org by the deadline for submissions: 19 June 2023 (29 May for the UK). Heads of Delegations in cooperation with node managers will ensure that submissions are complete and include all the elements listed below. Submissions of incomplete proposals will not be considered.

UK submission guidelines

Please submit your nominations to MSB Support Officers at Kew MSBSupportOfficers@kew.org with ‘GBIF Graduate Researcher’ in the subject line by Monday 29 May 2023, following the instructions on the GBIF young researchers award website.  Two nominations will then be selected for submission to GBIF by the UK GBIF Delegation (currently representatives of DEFRA, NERC, the Natural History Museum London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the National Biodiversity Network Trust in time for the GBIF submission deadline.  Please contact Alan Paton for further information if required.

Further information

Please visit the GBIF website for further information on the Award.

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