Small
Grants Program
ANTHROPOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT
SECTION
OF THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION
Small Grants Program Guidelines
Purpose
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 in 2009 is September 30, 2010 Please
send proposals, acceptable in the following format only, and questions about
the program via email to Dr. Janis Alcorn, at janisalcorn@yahoo.com in advance of the deadline.
Proposal Format
1. 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.
2. Summary or Abstract (1/2page)
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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
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.