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2008 Grant Opportunity To: Prospective Grant Applicants This post calls your attention to the opportunity to submit a Pre-Proposal to the J.R.S. Biodiversity Foundation. This is a two-step process with this call being issued in order to create a short list of organizations for further evaluation later this year. All Pre-Proposals will be evaluated on their own merits. Based on an initial review, an invitation to submit a full proposal for funding will be sent to a limited number of respondents later in 2008. The J.R.S. Biodiversity Foundation was created in January 2004 when the nonprofit publishing company, Biological Abstracts was sold to Thomson Scientific. The proceeds from that sale established an endowment at the new Foundation. The Board of Directors of the new Foundation chose a life sciences related Mission:
The Mission has been defined to focus on:
Within those bounds a strategic interest has been chosen to:
When the Foundation refers to biodiversity it does so within the context of the meaning set by The Convention on Biological Diversity where at the Rio de Janeiro Conference in June 1992 it defined biological diversity as “the variability among living organisms from all sources including, among other things, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” The J.R.S. Biodiversity Foundation has an interest in supporting efforts that cut across traditional boundaries and assisting practical, useful and scalable projects. This is especially important as the field becomes increasingly data-driven, thereby benefiting from collaboration among various environmental disciplines. Additional Foundation interests include fostering the use of information technologies for the acquisition of new knowledge in the area of biodiversity; assuring that the knowledge is used to maintain or enhance biodiversity and sustainability; fostering the training of the next generation of scientists; and educating decision-makers. Since its inception the J.R.S. Biodiversity Foundation has approved two rounds of grants and 12 organizations have been funded for a total of well over $2 million. The Foundation’s goal with this request for Pre-Proposal is to identify organizations and projects that it might consider for the next round of funding. Grants made under this opportunity will be expected to clearly and specifically advance the field of biodiversity informatics. Successful proposals will describe projects that are based on providing, refining, and making widely-available informatics tools that address important biodiversity issues. Stronger proposals will develop information and informatics tools that are useful for fact-based, biodiversity decision-making beyond the geographic bounds and time course of individual projects. When appropriate, projects should build upon existing international standards and institutions for data sharing such as those developed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org), the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG: http://www.tdwg.org) and other organizations. When the Foundation refers to “biodiversity informatics” it does so based on a definition taken in essence from Dr. Walter Berendsohn http://www.bgbm.org/BioDivInf/def-e.htm Biodiversity informatics is the application of information technology (IT) tools and approaches to biodiversity information, principally at the organismic level. It thus deals with information capture, storage provision, retrieval, and analysis, focused on individual organisms, populations, and species, and their interactions. It covers information generated by the fields of systematics, evolutionary biology, population biology, and ecology, as well as more applied fields such as conservation biology and ecological management. The Foundation believes in the importance of sharing with the public data gathered through its funding, following open-access principles like those promulgated by the Conservation Commons. If an applicant believes that data gathered or generated through JRS support should not be made publicly available then a rationale must be given for holding the information privately. Proposals that are submitted should explain ways that computer systems, tools, and applications can be used to more effectively collect, maintain, evaluate and disseminate biodiversity information that is currently being collected or that has previously been collected in developing countries, particularly in Africa. It is anticipated that this call will generate requests from organizations presently working on the acquisition, integration, analysis and application of biodiversity from the molecular, genetic, species, community, or broad ecosystem levels. It is expected that Foundation grant awards for approved projects will be in the $100,000 to $200,000 USD range. The Foundation has a particular interest in efforts that have the potential to yield new ways to understand and apply to public policy, biological information and to promote collaborative endeavors. There is also an interest in supporting international south-south and north-south partnerships and networks that transfer learning, research, and application capabilities. The Foundation also has an interest in promoting human capacity through its grants and encourages in proposals the inclusion of staff development, involvement of mentors, travel for short courses for junior and senior staff, and similar activities that will build biodiversity competence in developing nations. Timetable: March 15, 2008: Pre-Proposal due to Foundation. Only online applications will be reviewed. April 2008: Screening of Pre-Proposals by Grants Committee May 2008: Pre-Proposal initial review by the Foundation Board of Trustees June 2008: Selection of limited number of organizations to be invited to submit full proposals and notification to applicants of Foundation decision September 2008: Final full proposals due to Foundation by invited applicants October 2008: Review of final proposals by Foundation Grants Committee November 2008: Final proposal evaluation and funding decision announcement by Foundation
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