BES Facebook pageField Experience Grants
Ask a successful ecologist what originally fired his or her enthusiasm for ecology and many will tell you that it was a teacher at school who passed on their enthusiasm more often than not through a field course. The Field Experience Grant supplies professional ecologists with some of the funds to work with a group of undergraduates or 16 year old plus school students on a justified piece of ecological research. The ecologists can benefit from the knowledge that they are helping to teach future ecologists and also can use the research work as part of their research project.
The following criteria must be met in order to qualify for a Field Experience Grant.
- The applicant needs to be the ecologists in charge of the project
- The project must be well justified as a piece of ecological research
- The award is to meet in full or to subsidise the cost of accommodation and travel expenses of undergraduate or school pupils over the age of 16 working on the research project.
- A clear, itemised and costed budget should be provided describing how the money should be spent.
- The tasks expected of the students must be realistic and adequate training must be written into the plans
- The project must provide the participants with a worthwhile experience of ecological research and they should be able to see how their work is contributing to the overall project.
- The project must provide the participants with training and experience in the use of basic field skills and species identification
- The project must be field-based and can be carried out in the UK or overseas
- There must be at least 6 undergraduate/school students taking part in the project for an application to be considered. There is no upper limit provided that the plans are realistic.
- Projects must show that they have carried out a risk assessment, however the BES will not view, comment on or assess these. The responsibility for the safety of the participants and for adequately insuring the expedition rests solely with the organiser.
- Preference will be given to projects which have not been awarded a FEG before
- Organisations will not be funded through this grant scheme.
Value:
Up to £3000
Closing dates:
1st of November
Application:
This grant is only available by applying using the BES online application form.
To view or download the online questions before filling in the online form download the form from here [MS Word, 49 Kb] (this form is only for guidance and applications will need to be submitted using the online form)
To apply for this grant please visit the BES grant application website
A copy of a report of the project should be submitted to the BES within 6 months of the completion of the field work.
To view previous grant reports and to download a report template please visit the report section of our website.
Payment by BES will be made in advance to the institution where the organiser is employed. Any money provided as part of the award which remains unspent once the fieldwork is completed should be returned to the BES. Failure to provide a report or to carry out the project in accordance with the agreed plans and budget without prior approval from the BES could result in the project organiser and his or her institution being black-listed by the BES for future awarding of grants.
