Small Grants

Small Grants Program

[for Institutional or Individual Members]

PURPOSE

The Ohio Biological Survey offers small grant programs to support work which occurs partially or wholly in Ohio, and that promotes the Survey’s objectives. The Survey offers this support to individual members and institutional/corporate members from monies derived from a portion of dues income.

QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants for individual small grants must be current individual members of the Survey. Applicants for institutional / corporate small grants must be active employees or members of the member institution or corporation.

OBJECTIVES OF THE OHIO BIOLOGICAL SURVEY

1. To secure accurate and detailed information concerning the occurrence, distribution, and ecology of the plants and animals in Ohio for the people in general and for those engaged in education, conservation, and science in particular.
2. To collect, identify, describe, and distribute biological materials that may be of service in education and research.
3. To publish the scientific results of biological surveys and scientific studies on the taxonomy, distribution, and ecology of plants and animals in Ohio, or in a wider geographical area of which Ohio is an integral part.

• RULES AND GUIDELINES
  1. Grant requests can be made for up to $250 and up to $500 for individual and institutional small grants, respectively.
  2. Recipients are not eligible to receive both individual and institutional small grants in the same year.
  3. A portion of the monies available for institutional / corporate small grants will be set aside for qualified proposals from colleges, secondary schools and other institutions without graduate students. If more qualified proposals exist from these smaller institutions than can be funded, then the unfunded proposals will be considered with those from larger institutions. If there is an insufficient number of qualified proposals from these smaller institutions, then the remaining set‑aside monies will be added to that available for the larger institutions.
  4. All proposals must be typed (single-spaced) on the “Small Grants Proposal Form” given below.
  5. Completed proposals must be received by the Survey electronically at info@ohiobiologicalsurvey.org on or before February 15 of each granting year.
  6. Review and scoring of all proposals will be performed by a Committee empowered by the Survey’s Board of Trustees. The Director and the Survey staff will function to inform the membership about the small grants program, to dispense monies to successful awardees, to organize presentation of interim reports at an annual meeting, and to receive and house final reports or publications. If the Director, upon receipt of the proposals, finds that two or more institutional applicants are proposing essentially the same work, the respective applicants will be alerted of this fact in the hope that the work can be done cooperatively. This does not necessarily imply a reduction in funding.
  7. Awardees are strongly encouraged to deliver an oral or poster presentation at the Ohio Natural History Conference in February of the following year. A final written report by individual and institutional awardees is due in the Survey office by 31 March of the following year.  Institutions or individuals who fail to file a final report will be ineligible for subsequent funding.
  8. Publications, public and private presentations, and other products derived from work funded by the Survey must include acknowledgment of the Survey.
  9. One copy of any publication resulting from this grant must be sent to the Survey office at P.O. Box 21370, Columbus, Ohio, 43221.
  10. Grantees are responsible for obtaining all necessary permits and permissions for collecting, access to public and private properties, etc. The Ohio Biological Survey can assist with obtaining permits by providing a letter of support for the study.
• EVALUATION CRITERIA
  1. How does the proposed work pertain to the objectives of the Survey?
     [ score 1 (low) to 5 (high); weight = 40% ]
  2. How does the proposed work rank in relation to Survey priorities?
     [ 5 = surveys and distributions; 4 = taxonomy and collection work; 3 = ecology‑ population studies; 3 = ecology‑ life history studies; 3‑= ecology ‑ conservation; weight = 30% ]
  3. How does the proposed work rank in relation to other proposals of similar priority?
     [ score 1 (low) to 5 (high); weight= 20% ]
  4. How does the proposed work meet the following subcriteria:
     -the proposed work can be completed within a reasonable time frame; necessary collection permits are in‑hand or in‑processing (if applicable)
     -the applicant has given some indication of previous experience or aptitude for the proposed work (if applicable,primarily institutional/corporate grants)
     -the applicant has satisfactorily completed work on previous Survey grants (if applicable)
     -the proposed work will result in a Survey publication or a publication in a refereed journal
     [score 1 (low) to 5 (high); weight = 10% ]

[Institutional Small Grants Only]

In case of ties for the last grant in the ranked list, preference will be given to proposals (1) that continue or follow‑up work successfully completed during previous grant periods, (2) that are from institutions with no funded proposals, and (3) which are part of funding requests to one or more other sources. In the latter case, proof must be provided that complete funding has been secured before Survey funds are actually transferred