Climate research bursary fund

Bursary awards of up to £2,000 are available for postgraduate students at the University of Leeds pursuing field research projects on issues relating to Climate Research and/or Plant Biology in any region of the world.

Funds can be used for travel, purchase of data, software or equipment and fieldwork-based research costs.

The scheme is funded as part of an alumni-supported research programme and preference will be given to novel, cross-disciplinary projects that contribute clear, independent outcomes. It is required that each supported project will produce a two page briefing note to outline the main findings and relevance to land managers and policy-makers.

Applications will be assessed by a panel of experts from the Priestley International Centre for Climate and the Centre for Plant Sciences with assessment made against criteria of:

Fit to climate change and solutions research need, or to innovative connections between plant biology, ecology and environmental science.
Novelty of proposed project
Feasibility of proposed project
Clarity of plan to deliver realistic outcomes
Demonstrated funding need for additional bursary support.

The bursary scheme is available to all postgraduate students of the University of Leeds for support to the fieldwork component of climate or ecology-facing research projects undertaken as part of their research project.

Please use the application form at this link to apply. Submissions of the application form should be made to Elizabeth Dell by Friday 8^th March 2019.

Awards will be announced during the week commencing 25^th March.

Conditions of the Award

Applicants must be a postgraduate student registered at the University of Leeds.
Awards cannot be made retrospectively and the award period of each bursary will be individually agreed.
All major expenses (e.g. travel, subsistence and data collection support) will require receipts for auditing the expenditure through the Climate Research Bursary Fund.
All research must be conducted in a safe and ethical manner. Awards are made on condition that the project has received formal approval through the relevant School Health and Safety Risk Assessment process and, where appropriate, has also received ethical clearance from the University of Leeds Ethics Committee. Information on the status of these approvals should be provided with your application. If you are unclear about the procedures for meeting the above conditions, please discuss these with your supervisor.
Where required, you must have obtained a research permit for the country you are visiting.
Within a month of completion of the fieldwork you will be required to complete a short report and provide high resolution JPEG images/photographs which capture the essence of the project. The report should be 2 sides of A4 length and must be submitted by 1 September 2019 (or agreed later date if linked to PhD research beyond this date). Your report should be in the form of a briefing note written for a non-expert, public audience, with a short abstract, a description of the project and an outline of its key findings. You should also describe the specific contribution that this award has made to your postgraduate research project.

Award details, including text and images from reporting, may be used in University publications and webpages.
Money not spent must be refunded.
The support from the Climate Research Bursary Fund should be acknowledged in all publications and outputs. Copies of any such publications and outputs should be submitted to Elizabeth Dell.

Contact/Applications

Image: Adriane Esquivel Muelbert