The Porcupine Marine Natural History Society is pleased to announce the fifth year of the small grant scheme. A total fund of £2000 is available for small research projects to be carried out and completed before March 2013.
Applications will be considered for any small project falling within the objectives of the Society.
This Society seeks to promote interest in the ecology, taxonomy, and distribution of marine fauna and flora in the N.E. Atlantic.
Projects may be field-based, or pursued in a laboratory or museum. The projects could vary from basic sorting and identification, to specialist taxonomic/biological/ecological study of a particular taxon, group of taxa, or habitat.
Projects may concern any marine or estuarine environment, however, the PMNHS Council would welcome applications to study the Discovery Collections at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton . These include a great variety of both sorted and unsorted samples, containing many unique and exotic animals from the open ocean and the deep sea of the Porcupine Seabight and Porcupine Abyssal Plain. The Collections provide an exciting research opportunity that could lead to the discovery of species new to science. As they are used primarily for ecological research, the Collections are currently ordered so that whole samples, and hence communities, may be examined, rather than ranked by taxon, as in most museums. The samples have been collected using both quantitative and semi-quantitative gear, such as multicorers, box corers and acoustically monitored epibenthic sledges, otter trawls and midwater nets. They provide important base-line data on the deep-sea environment for measuring ecosystem change and for studying local and regional biodiversity. Discovery samples would normally be worked on at NOC in Southampton, but may be studied in alternative approved institutions on a loan basis. Please contact Dr Tammy Horton (Discovery Collections Manager; tammy.horton@noc.ac.uk) for further details if you would like to submit a proposal to study this material.
The purpose of any project would be to make information more accessible to the wider community, and therefore a written summary (e.g., a report for the newsletter and website) of any work undertaken will be expected, and a talk at the annual Porcupine Conference strongly encouraged.
The fund may be used for research and reporting costs only; applicants are expected to meet their own living expenses and time costs. Purchase of equipment is not an eligible cost.
Eligibility
Applications will be accepted from students, researchers, or any person willing and able to carry out the necessary research; under appropriate supervision if that is deemed necessary. Applicants should be members of the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society (you do not have to be a current member, but must join the society to be eligible). These grants are open to all, irrespective of status, whether professional or amateur marine biologist or environmentalist. Projects will be excluded which are part of the professional work of the applicant or are part of an undergraduate or post-graduate degree programme.
Application
The application for grant should include:
- a full description of the proposed project
- when and where the project will be carried out
- the proposed timescale to complete the project
- the expected outcomes which will result from your project
- proposed publication plans for the results of the project
- a full CV of the applicant, together with details of relevant experience or training
- detailed proposed expenditure for the project (may include additional funding sources)
All proposals will be assessed by a panel from the PMNHS Council, and the best proposal(s) granted. The Council reserves the right to not grant any projects in any one round of applications.
Applications must be submitted by 29th February 2012 - late applications will not be admitted.
Please send applications to:
Dr Andrew Mackie, Chairman, Porcupine Marine Natural History Society
Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP
(by post or e-mail:Andrew.Mackie@museumwales.ac.uk)
