Oscar and Jan Francke ISA Student Research Fund

The ISA Arachnological Research Fund provides support for undergraduate or graduate student ISA members whose work relates to any aspect of the taxonomy, systematics, behaviour, ecology, physiology, or evolution of any of the arachnid groups. Awards may be used for field work, laboratory work, museum research (including travel), expendable supplies, identification of specimens, and/or preparation of figures and drawings for publication. Monies from the fund are not meant to augment or replace salary.

• Typical Award: up to 800 Euro
• Submission Deadline: February 28th each year
• Notification Target Date: May 1st each year
 
Eligibility
Requirements for ISA Student Research Fund: Research grants are awarded only to student members of the ISA. If you are from a developing nation, sponsored memberships are available and must be obtained to be eligible for a grant. Learn about Membership here: http://arachnology.org/isa/membership-donations.html.
Students from poorly funded institutions are encouraged to apply. 

Note: The same proposal for a student research grant may not be submitted to the ISA and American Arachnological Society (AAS). However, different proposals may be submitted to the two funds.

Selection criteria

Awardees are selected based on the following criteria:
•       Clear goals and convincing project design and feasibility.
•       Clear demonstration of intended use of the budget for the specific project proposed.

Priority will be given to unfunded, stand-alone projects or specific sub-projects of the degree research.
Submission of a full PhD or Master’s proposal is discouraged.
Requests to cover single budget items of already funded degree research are given lower priority.
Monies from the fund are not meant to augment or replace salary.
Travelling to conferences is not funded.

Application

To be considered for an award, please submit, in English, the cover sheet, optional cover letter, and your project description as an electronic file (e.g., MSWord). An editable file is preferred to a pdf file, so reviewers can easily type comments in the document. Please name the file LASTNAME_Francke_Fund_Year.

COVER SHEET (DOWNLOAD HERE)

The PROPOSAL should be in English, in an 11 or 12-point font, double-spaced. Text of the proposal should be no longer than 5 pages (not including references, figures and budget). The proposal should include the following parts:

1. TITLE and your name and address (including email address)

2. INTRODUCTION presenting background information, justification for the proposed study, and if appropriate, the hypothesis to be tested.

3. METHODS presenting the methods, materials, and analyses to be used.

4. LITERATURE CITED

5. BUDGET showing (in detail) how award money would be used in the proposed research.  If you choose to show the entire cost of the project, be sure to indicate specifically how the grant money would be used.

6. A LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM YOUR ADVISOR confirming student status and ability to conduct the work as proposed. Please ask your supervisor to name the file LetterSupport_StudentLastname.
 
Submission

Proposals should be submitted as email attachments to Dr. Yael Lubin, Committee Chair lubin@bgu.ac.il  
The subject line of the email should say “ISA Student Grant proposal”.