Young Researcher's Award – Opportunity to submit an application
The main objective of the Young Researcher's Award (YRA) is to foster innovative research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students in masters and doctorate programs at universities in countries participating in the GBIF network. The award has been put in place to stimulate use of GBIF enabled data by graduate students developing new research in biodiversity informatics and also to serve as an outreach mechanism to universities.
Two awards of €4,000 will be available to graduate students in a master’s or doctoral programme at a university in a GBIF Voting Participant or Associate Participant country.
Research proposals must clearly demonstrate how data enabled by GBIF is being incorporated in the student’s work. The proposal should include a project description, a budget, literature cited, and the applicant’s curriculum vitae including contact information at the home institution.
Masters and doctorate students who are interested in submitting an application can obtain details regarding the submission of proposals and other information from the national GBIF Head of Delegation or the national GBIF Node Manager for the country where their studies are registered.
Past winners
César Antonio Ríos-Muñoz, an ornithologist from Mexico who was one of the winners of the 2011 award, used the grant to purchase a personal computer and a software package to generate ecological niche models. Both these helped him in his PhD research.
The other award winner for 2011, Conor Ryan from Ireland, used the grant towards an analysis to yield information about cetacean diet. This analysis was a key element of his PhD research.
2012 Ebbe Nielsen Prize – Opportunity to submit an application
GBIF also invites nominations for the 2012 Ebbe Nielsen Prize, awarded annually to a person or team who demonstrates excellence in combining biodiversity informatics and biosystematics research. The award was established by the GBIF Governing Board to honour the memory of Ebbe Schmidt Nielsen, who was an inspirational leader in the fields of biosystematics and biodiversity informatics.
The €30,000 award is intended to allow the recipient(s) to engage in biosystematics/biodiversity informatics research outside his/her/their country of residence for a period of 3-6 months.
Individuals or institutions who wish to be nominated should contact the Head of Delegation of the relevant GBIF Participant country. Nominations are submitted by the Head of Delegation of any GBIF Voting or Associate Participant.
The nomination package should include:
- a cover letter from the Head of Delegation of the nominating GBIF Participant that describes the novel and exciting nature of the results of the nominee's research;
- a curriculum vitae for the nominee(s);
- evidence of the nominee(s)' relevant research, such as reprints, URLs of websites, or other supporting materials;
- up to three – and no more – supporting letters from experts in the fields of biosystematics, bioinformatics and/or biodiversity informatics;
- a statement from the nominee(s) that describes how the Prize will be used.
Nomination packages may be sent to ENPrize@gbif.org.
The winner of the Prize will be selected by the GBIF Governing Board Science Committee, and the prize will be awarded at the GBIF Governing Board meeting to be held from 18-20 September 2012 in Norway.
For further details, please download the full call for nominations from the website
The list of previous winners and a history of the Prize is also available online
Contacts
For both awards, you can find all the Node Manager contact details on the GBIF website by following this link
For the UK, the Node Manager is Steve Wilkinson, of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Please note that submissions must be made through the country specific focal points and not sent directly to the GBIF Secretariat.
More information on the awards and making a submission can be found on the GBIF website . The basis of a successful application is likely to include ideas that make maximum use of the data available through the GBIF network. These could potentially combine with other data sources and/or make use of novel analytical techniques.
Deadline
Submissions must be made to Node Managers by 29th February 2012 in order for the submissions to be sent through to GBIF by 15th March 2012.