The purpose of the grant is to provide research funds to students that are ESA members and are undertaking a research project.  The applicant must be a candidate for a Master's or doctoral degree at an accredited university and must be an ESA member (this award is not offered to post-doctorals.)  This grant may be used for salaries, equipment, supplies, or travel to initiate, accelerate, augment, or expand a research project.  Five awardees will receive a $7,320.00 grant and will be presented with the cash prize at the ESA Annual Meeting.  The recipients are encouraged to present the research results at an ESA meeting.

Eligibility - The applicant must be a candidate for a Master's or doctoral degree at an accredited university and must be an ESA member.   The recipient is encouraged to present the research results at an ESA meeting and is required to acknowledge the grant award in any publications resulting from these funds.  This award is not offered to post-doctoral individuals.

Nomination Requirements- Nominations may be made by anyone. Nomination packages for this award must include:

CV-Related Items:  Nominators must provide the information called for in the CV template, either in the template's format or in their own format.  CV-related nomination requirements for this award include the below: 

Section I: Background Information

1. Nominee's/Applicant's Name
2. Contact Information: Provide nominee's or applicant's mailing address, e-mail address and phone number.
3. Affiliation: Place of work, study or other appropriate affiliation.
4. Current Professional or Academic Title
5. Educational Background: List degrees, institutions, and years received.
6. Relevant Employment: Include employer, location, nominee's title, and years of employment.
7. Memberships and Affiliations: (Only for awards not requiring Section 5: Service) Relevant professional memberships and additional affiliations such as adjunct faculty status.
8. Awards and Honors: Title of relevant award or honor, bestowing institution, and year bestowed. Please exclude grants or contracts here. Significant elected positions also may be listed here.

Section II: Research -* (For items shown below with an asterisk) Lists may be summarized by providing the number of publications, talks, posters, etc. by type and/or listing only recent items, for example, in the last five or 10 years.

1. *Research Publications: Include refereed publications, review articles, books written or edited, book chapters, technical reports, and appropriate non-refereed publications. Abstracts or publications relating to teaching and extension are best listed in the corresponding sections below.
2. *Research Support: If applicable, list grants, gifts, and contracts. Include project titles, sources of funds, amounts, years and nominee's roles as principal investigator (e.g. primary, secondary, minor, etc.). Grants primarily for teaching or extension activities are best listed in the appropriate sections below.
3. *Research Talks and Posters Presented: List invited presentations, including seminars and symposia, and submitted presentations, including professional meetings and conferences. Extension presentations are best summarized in Section 4 below.
4. Patents: If available and applicable, provide relevant patent title, number, year, and any additional information.

Additional items required in the nomination packet include:

1. Letter of nomination
2. Title, duration, and background information concerning the significance of the proposed research to the field (one-page)
3. Materials and budget (one-page)
4. Up to three letters of recommendation

Evaluation Criteria - Nominees/candidates will be judged using the following criteria for a total of 80 points:

1. Candidate(40 points total)
   1. Honors, awards, achievements and recognition (10)
   2. Recommendation from professors, advisors, etc. (10)
   3. Grantsmanship (10)
   4. Publications (10)
2. Proposed Research(40 points total)
   1. Feasibility (10)
   2. Contribution (10)
   3. Creativity and innovation (10)
   4. National impact (10)

Electronic Submission Requirements - All nomination packages must be submitted electronically according to the following specifications (paper nominations will not be accepted):

Page Limits

• The entire nomination package must not exceed 20 pages total. This includes letters of nomination or recommendation and publication lists.
• Letters of nomination and recommendation must be included in the electronic package. Printed letters sent in lieu of electronic versions will not be accepted.

File Specifications

• Only the following file formats will be accepted: PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format), RTF (Rich Text Format), TIF graphic files, or JPG graphic files. Files created on either PC or MAC platforms will be accepted. Please make sure scanned images can be clearly read on a computer screen.
• Font size for text may not be smaller than 10 point.
• A nomination package may contain no more than 6 separate files, and the size of each file must not exceed 3 MB.

Submission Methods - Nomination packages may be submitted by either of two methods:

• Submit online via the Nomination Submission Website. This method eliminates problems associated with e-mailing large files. Nominators are strongly encouraged to use this method.
  OR
• E-mail the nomination package as attached files to the awards administrator. In the submission e-mail, please include the title of the award in the subject of the e-mail. In the body of the e-mail, provide the name of the nominee, the nominator's contact information, and a list of the attached files

Deadline

Nomination packages must be received by ESA headquarters by July 1. This deadline refers to receipt by the awards administrator of a complete package in a readable format. Therefore, early submission is highly recommended. The awards administrator will confirm receipt of nomination packages within two business days, and also notify nominators of any problems with nomination package files within that time.

Renomination

Any candidate nominated, but not selected, may be renominated no more than two times within the two-year period after his/her initial submission. Nomination packages will be retained for two years by the awards administrator. Nominators must send a letter of renomination to the awards administrator by the nomination deadline above. Previously submitted documentation will be used for the evaluation process unless the nominator submits new or updated documents. The renomination e-mail must contain this additional documentation. New or updated documents must follow the electronic submission requirements noted above.

Notification

The awards administrator will notify all candidates and their nominators with the results of their nomination approximately two months after the nomination submission deadline. 

For questions about this award, please click here.