2011 Winners
- Shannon Dosemagen and Sara Wylie (PLOTS) were awarded $2,000 for sensors, Arduino boards, and data loggers for their project Affordable Hydrogen Sulfide Sensing for Gas Patch Safety.
- Rebecca Zarger (University of South Florida) was awarded $1,500 for printing/distribution of student workshops and teacher manuals for her project Sharing and Sustaining Maya Environmental Heritage in Southern Belize.
Purpose of Small Grants for Collaborative Problem Solving
The goal of the Anthropology & Environment Section’s Small Grants Program is to foster collaboration among practicing and academic anthropologists, grassroots activists, and/or organizations and inspire innovative solutions to environmental issues. The small grants program is particularly interested in projects that facilitate communication and brainstorming between groups or that lead to program or institution building necessary to form innovative solutions. Proposals may address local, national or global concerns, issues, or problems.
Eligibility
Members of the American Anthropology Association who also belong to the Anthropology & Environment Section are eligible to apply. Please visit www.aaanet.org for details on joining the Association, dues, and details on the benefits of membership.
Proposals may request from $100 to $2,000 and must address clearly defined activities or projects. Eligible projects include but are not limited to: 1) organization of workshops or symposia; 2) pilot projects to disseminate information; 3) projects to assist in program or institution building on environmental problem-solving. Proposals that include matching funds are encouraged.
Proposals to organize workshops and symposia at professional conferences are eligible as long as those workshops include representatives of organizations addressing environmental issues or problems. Requests by A&E members for travel and/or per diem funds to attend professional meetings are NOT eligible, but proposals for workshops may request such funds for activists or representatives of organizations who could not otherwise afford to participate.
Conflict of Interest Statement
All A&E award committees follow NSF guidelines regarding potential conflict of interest between applicants and reviewers.
Deadline
The deadline for proposals is September 30, 2012 Please send proposals, acceptable in the following format only, and questions about the program via email toJustin Nolan (ozarksanthro@MSN.COM) in advance of the deadline.
Proposal Format
- Application Cover Page Give the name, organization/department, address, and phone number of the project contact person, and their AAA membership number. State the title of the project. List the total amount in the requested budget.
- Summary or Abstract (1/2 page) Present your case and a brief summary of the entire proposal. This should include, very briefly, the need or problem, the aims, objectives and goals and the solution to which you aim to contribute with this proposal. Include what will take place, how many people will benefit from it, how and where it will operate, for how long, who will staff it, and the amount of grant money required in total.
- Statement of Need or Problem (1/2 page) The statement of need should enable the review committee to learn more about the issues and goals. Present literature, previous projects, facts and/or evidence to support the need for the project and establish that you understand the need or problem and can reasonably address it. Indicate any other funding sources already explored, awarded or pending. Be concise, yet persuasive.
- Project Description, including timeline (one page) This section should consist of three parts: a. Objectives, b. Methods, and c. Timeline. Objectives should describe the general and specific intents or outcomes of the project. List no more than three objectives, with one sentence describing each. Methods include the specific activities that will take place to achieve the objectives. Provide a detailed description of what will occur, and why you have chosen these methods. The Timeline should be in graphic form and should tell the order and timing for the tasks.
- Project Personnel (approx. 1/2 page) Describe the personnel who will be involved in the project. Give their titles and qualifications. Explain their specific assignments in the project. Explain if volunteers, consultants, or technicians will be involved in the project. Indicate who will administer the project.
- Budget Explanation (approx. 1/2 page) Provide justification for the budget and any additional information to help the review committee understand how calculations were made. Explain any unusual line items in the budget. If the requested grant from A&E will not cover all project expenses, please indicate the other sources of funding. You may also identify other contributions in this section, such as your time, resources of your department, etc.
- Project Assessment or Evaluation (approx. 1/2 page) Evaluation should be built into your project. Explain how the project will be evaluated in relation to accomplishment of the objectives. Describe the manner in which evaluation information will be collected and how the data will be analyzed. After the project is completed, these results will be reported in the final report which is due by 31 December of the following year.
- Conclusion Every proposal should have a concluding paragraph or two. Call attention to the future, after the grant is completed. Will the project carry on? Outline any follow-up activities. Finally, make a concluding appeal for your project and why it is important.
Please see the Awards below as examples of proposals that successfully addressed the purpose of this grants competition.
History of the Grant
2010 Awards
- Karl Hoerig for his proposal ($2,000) “Coordinating Efforts to Perpetuate Western Apache Environmental Knowledge” (USA).
- Kristin Vander-Molen for her proposal ($2,000) “Of Hurricanes and Hot Peppers: Bringing Local Legends back to Cotacachi’s children” (Ecuador).
2009 Awards
- Tracie Heidt for a short film to spread solutions to the environmental problems of drought, deforestation and famine in East Africa.
- Gina Drew for Rainwater Harvesting for Sustainable Livelihoods in Garhwal, Himalaya.
- Keri Brondo and Kathryn Hicks for Environmental Justice Workshops in Southwest Memphis.
2008 Awards
- Catie Burlando ($750) for facilitating dissemination of Pikangikum elders´ vision in Canada.
- Cristy Watkins ($750) for Karujubu Sub-County Fuel Energy Conservation project in Uganda.
- Linda D´Amico ($750) for a journalism workshop with INTAG newspaper regarding human rights and conservation in the cloud forest of Ecuador.
- Maria Gutierrez and Ian Fry ($750) for a Guide to Land Use and Forestry under UNFCCC.
2007 Awards
- Dana Powell ($1000), University of North Carolina and Dine CARE, Navajo Nation, Arizona; contributing to a web site and workshops at local colleges in the Navajo region to raise awareness of the environmental problems of the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project and energy development projects in general.
- Jim Igoe ($1000), University of Colorado; contributing to a Washington DC workshop to discuss and bridge the conflicts between conservation and human rights, including representatives of USAID and conservation NGOs as well as anthropologists from academia.
- Felice Wyndham ($1000), University of British Columbia and Consejo EcoRegional Sierra Tarahumara; contributing to implementation of innovative records-sharing mechanisms between academic researchers and community/indigenous researcher in Sierra Tarahumara, Chihuahua, Mexico.
- Melissa Checker ($500), City University of New York; contributes toward workshops that will enable residents to develop a plan for relocation and Brownfield redevelopment of a site within their chemically-polluted neighborhood of Hyde Park in Augusta, Georgia.
- Krista Harper ($500), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, contributes to a project using community-based digital filmmaking to generate knowledge about and responses to environmental inequalities in a Bonari Gypsy community in Borsod County, northern Hungary.