Future Earth Coasts

FEC SMALL GRANT PROGRAM

Future Earth Coasts (FEC) is a global sustainability, research and innovation network that promotes knowledge sharing and action towards implementing our vision for healthy oceans and coasts for a just and environmentally sustainable future. It is first and foremost a platform to integrate communities of science and society to co-design methodologies and approaches for the co-production of knowledge that will lead to more sustainable practices of use and development of the world’s coastal zones.

The FEC Small Grant program targets both individuals and teams of 3 to 5 Early Career Professionals that present a proposal aiming to increase their ability to understand, predict and/or manage the effects of human activities, including climate change, on estuarine and coastal regions. The program welcomes applications from both individual and group applicants.

Annually, the FEC Small Grant program will award one or more grants, totaling €1500. The number of awards will depend on the funds available in the FEC Budget for the year of the award.

As researchers in less developed countries are at a disadvantage because of the lack of sufficient funds, equipment, or opportunities, the FEC Small Grant Program is designed to help individuals and small teams that need to improve further their capability to reach their goals.

The individuals or teams that receive the grant must employ the funds for one or more of the following categories:

  • Support for research, including field work expenses, travel, or purchase of equipment or consumables.
  • Activities to enhance your research, including visits to specialist laboratories or to view specific research collections.
  • Support for enhancing your professional capability such as visits to management organizations or mentoring from such specialists.
  • Participation in an academic or practitioner conference with an oral or poster presentation of your research findings or activities.
  • Participation in a training course or workshop.
  • Organization of a workshop for the team members if they are from different institutions and/or countries.

Eligibility Criteria

Decisions on funding will be made by the FEC Executive Committee upon the recommendation of an Ad hoc Committee (AHC) designated by the FEC Executive Committee. The AHC will consider the following criteria:

a) Individual and group applicants

  • The funds are to help advance research and/or professional activities that are already funded but require some extra input to achieve the expected results.
  • The applicant team must be constituted of 3 to 5 members, and each of them must be considered an early career professional (see below for definition) and must aim to have a clear gender balance.
  • The team should aim to be multidisciplinary in such a way that the proposal should nurture from the capacity of both natural and social capacities.
  • All team members must be from less developed countries (see below for definition); although they can be from different institutions and/or countries that are included in that category.
  • Early career researchers are considered to be those within 10 years of completion of/graduation from their PhD. For early career researchers, a supporting statement from their Head of School/division should be provided.
  • Early Career Professionals are those within 10 years of entering the profession since graduating; they should provide a letter of support from their Line Manager or Director.
  • The definition of a ‘less developed country’ is taken from the DAC list of countries eligible for Overseas Development Aid (https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/).

b) Proposal

  • The project must be related to one or more coastal or estuarine environments that could be affected by anthropogenic influences, or it should be associated with sustainable coasts, encompassing socio-economic aspects.
  • The proposal is open to the adoption of both positivist and non-positivist methodologies, allowing for a diverse range of research approaches.
  • The proposal should be a maximum of 5 A4 pages spaced 1.5 and 12 point font. It can contain figures, tables and references that provide a further explanation of what is being proposed/sought.
  • For researchers, the general structure of the proposal should follow the typical of any proposal: Statement of the Problem, Brief Description of Early Work, Hypothesis/objectives/research questions, Methodology, Expected Results, and Available Support.
  • Within the proposal, the interdisciplinarity of the activities must be clearly stated.
  • Although the research to which the Grant will be attached can be longer, the activities to be done with the Grant must cover one year. A no-cost extension will be contemplated in the case of an underspend, and a funded extension might be pursued if the project demonstrates outstanding results.
  • For practitioners, the proposal should clearly indicate the benefits to each person and their organizations, the skills and knowledge lacking and so being gained, and the benefits of the networking opportunities.
  • The proposal must include the following annexes: I) A chronogram of the global project where the activities related to the Grant are included. II) A brief curriculum vitae (2 paragraphs each) describing every member of the team, and an extra text (about 2/3 paragraphs) describing what are the specific tasks each of them will be responsible for as well as how they will be integrated. III) An itemized proposal budget spreadsheet. The project budget must be detailed and well-justified.

c) Outputs

  • The team will undertake to present a summary of the research, event, etc. on the FEC webpage within 3 months of the completion of the activity.
  • If a conference presentation is given then this should also be uploaded.
  • If the work results in any paper or report then FEC should be acknowledged as a funding source.
  • The team should aim to present a webinar within the FEC series.

Procedure and requirements for nomination

Contact: [email protected]

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