2004 National Parks Ecological Research Fellowship Program

The National Park Service (NPS), National Park Foundation (NPF), and Ecological Society of America (ESA) are pleased to announce the 2004 National Parks Ecological Research (NPER) Fellowship Program. The program encourages and supports outstanding post-doctoral research in ecological sciences related to the flora of U.S. National Parks. For the purpose of this program, National Parks refer to all sites administered by the National Park System including national parks, monuments, preserves, reserves, lakeshores, seashores, rivers and scenic riverways, trails, historic sites, military parks, and battlefields. The program has been funded through a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The program will award up to three fellowships each year to researchers who have recently completed their Ph.D. Awards are made for up to two years with the possibility for renewal for a third year, determined at the end of the first year. Awards support research in any area of ecology related to the flora of the National Parks. Research topics can address any level of ecological organization, ranging from populations, species interactions, and community patterns, to landscape and ecosystem level processes associated with plants. Research should focus on questions that advance the science of ecology independent of immediate Park needs. Plants, cryptogamic crusts, lichens, fungi, algae, mosses, or other flora must be the main focus of the research. Research that takes advantage of the range of environments, conditions, and scales available in National Parks is of particular interest.
Eligibility and Criteria
The competition is open to individuals who have completed their Ph.D. within three years prior to the award date and are eligible to work in the United States. The applications must include a letter of support from a faculty member or researcher affiliated with an established research institution who will serve as co-Principal Investigator for the proposed research. Proposals will be evaluated based on scientific merit; the creativity of the research question and/or approach; the potential of the applicant to conduct high-quality ecological research; and the value of the Park natural resources or ecological features (e.g., habitats, communities, gradients, species) to the proposed research. The proposed research can be focused at a single Park site or at multiple Park sites of the National Park System. A complete listing of all the units of the National Park System can be found at www.nps.gov/parks.html.
Fellowship Awards
The Program will award up to three fellowships each year. NPER fellowships will be funded for $60,000 per year for up to two years (with the possibility of renewal for a third year). The fellowship funds can be used for research stipends (maximum $45,000), fringe benefits for the Fellow, research expenses (i.e. student assistants), equipment (both field and laboratory), travel to field sites and to attend scientific meetings. In addition, Fellows will be provided with support to attend the annual NPER colloquium where they will present their research to other Fellows and representatives from the NPS, NPF, and ESA. In addition, Fellows making presentations at the ESA Annual Meeting can request travel funds to cover some of the costs of attending.
Additional information and application materials are available at http://www.esa.org/nper. Completed applications must be received at ESA Headquarters between September 1, 2004 and October 1, 2004. For more information on the NPER Fellowship Program, contact: Rhonda Kranz, Program Manager, Ecological Society of America, 202-833-8773 or nper@esa.org.
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